Our Top Picks For September 30th, 2018

Check out the article by The Nation Bureau of Economic Research in which they say, "We study the effects of peer gender composition, a proxy for female-friendliness of environment, in STEM doctoral programs on persistence and degree completion. Leveraging unique new data and quasi-random variation in gender composition across cohorts within programs, we show that women entering cohorts with no female peers are 11.9pp less likely to graduate within 6 years than their male counterparts. A 1 sd increase in the percentage of female students differentially increases the probability of on-time graduation for women by 4.6pp. These gender peer effects function primarily through changes in the probability of dropping out in the first year of a Ph.D. program and are largest in programs that are typically male-dominated."


#STEMtoo is a submission based zine on sexual harassment in STEM fields for women to share their experiences and guidance in hopes that this zine will "provide a platform to heal; to say the things you can’t say without more harm, and to convey with imagery what you can’t speak in words" and "remind everyone impacted by SVSH in STEM that they are not alone. We may not know how to fix the mess that sexual predators created, but we can try to do it in solidarity." Check out this call for submissions for the #STEMtoo Zine here. 


"The National Institutes of Health (NIH) does not tolerate pervasive or severe harassment of any kind, including sexual harassment, whether it is within the agency, at research organizations that receive NIH funding, or anywhere else NIH-funded activities are conducted." Check out the article "NIH Announces Plans to Update Harassment Policies" to learn more about this recent change the NIH hopes will better educate the scientific community about sexual harassment. 


Read about the Women In Leadership Development, or WILD, program on their homepage Wildforstem.com. "The Program comprises three distinct components that will better position women to attain competitive, senior STEM positions and forge successful careers, in turn inspiring the next generation of female leaders."


Despite some effort from the community and great initiatives, female neuroscientists are still under-represented in various neuroscience conferences (BiasWatchNeuro). The aim of this Women in Neuroscience Repository is to help you identify and recommend female neuroscientists for conferences, symposia or collaborations. Check of this Women in neuroscience initiative here.

"Impostor phenomenon is an internalized experience of intellectual phoniness. People who feel like impostors are typically bright, motivated and successful, yet usually have incorrect, unrealistic and self-defeating self-perceptions. They think that they are not smart enough and may not have a realistic sense of their competence. [Washington State University] would like to understand if these self-perceptions affect how people navigate their career and opportunities to advance." Participate in this research study by completing a survey and interview if you are a qualified candidate. See the parameters and ideas behind the research study here.