Interesting Features at PWN for 3.16.15

News from the PWN Pipeline:

'We must still refine how to promote gender equality.'

The Guardian online offers an important update on gender disparity in STEM-related fields by examining findings from several research studies on the issue. Importantly, it seems that gender biases may persist in specific fields, such as life sciences (psychology, social sciences), where women are still paid less than men, have trouble gaining tenure, and are less likely to apply for assistant professorships. In other fields, however, such as math-intensive fields (geoscience, economics, mathematics/computer science, chemistry, physics), women's careers are progressing more equally to those of men. Unfortunately, in math-intensive fields, there are simply fewer women who have chosen to pursue careers in these fields. The more women who become successful academics in  math-intensive and life sciences fields, the more girls will be taught by women and thus will perceive of greater options and opportunities for themselves. The article also summarizes several key policy interventions that were proposed in a recent research article that could promote gender equality in STEM, among them recruiting gender-balanced review and speaker selection committees and creating institutional report cards for gender equality.