Our Picks for June 14th!

This week we have some bad news and some good news! Don't worry, the bad news isn't necessarily all bad -- it's good that these issues are being brought to light. We'll start with the bad and end on a happy note!

The bad news

Why aren't we doing research on female mice?

Dr. Rebecca Shansky, a professor at Northeastern Univeristy, points out that lots of studies use exclusively male mice and points out that, well, this doesn't really make any sense. The argument has always been that female hormones will cause too much variation between animals. But, as Shansky points out, that's kind of a bogus argument because, um, males have hormones, too. Read more about it in the links.

Black and Latinx women face double the bias when applying to postdocs

A new study using the old trick of distributing CVs with the same qualifications but different names demonstrated that faculty hiring postdocs in physics showed an extra large amount of bias against Black and Latinx women. Faculty rated female-sounding names as less competent than male-sounding names, and they rated Black and Latinx women as even less competent than their white or Asian female counterparts. Read more about it here.

Other bad news:

-60% of male managers say they feel uncomfortable working with women in light of #MeToo
-Male characters on children's TV shows use STEM skills to solve problems, whereas female characters use magic
-A Stanford professor fired over sexual misconduct blames he behavior on "different cultural norms" (yes, another professor, same excuse)

The good news

Celebrate Women in STEM!

We're coming up on the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing. Is the first moon-landing-related scientist that comes to your mind Neil Armstrong? Change that by reading about these women who helped us land on the moon and about pioneering women in STEM today!

Support Women in STEM!

Earth and Space Science news brings us actionable strategies to support women in STEM! We recommend sharing them with your male colleagues in STEM, too!

Other good news:
-The NIH director released a statement against manels (i.e., all-male panels)!
-Women today say you can really have it all
-The fraction of women authors on medical research papers is increasing!
-The CEO of the Girl Scouts tells us how to advance women in tech
-Modern tech is making education more accessible!