Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM)

Since the 2001 release of NCRW’s seminal publication "Balancing the Equation: Where Are Women and Girls in Science, Engineering and Technology?" women have made significant strides in STEM-related studies and careers. However, progress in some areas has fallen short, particularly in technical fields – engineering, biochemistry and computer science/technology – in which women are still largely under-represented. The barriers and obstacles to women’s advancement are numerous and complex including gender bias, lack of mentoring and economic hardship. Efforts need to be stepped up to reduce these constraints. Explore the resources listed below, including Related Categories links, or use the Keyword Search for more information.

"Queer Science"

Submitted by UMICH on Tue, 10/02/2012 - 11:13am

Member Organization:

Institute for Research on Women and Gender

Date/Time:

10/03/2012

During the 2012-13 academic year, the University of Michigan's Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG) presents several events tied to it's Program on Feminist Science.

This kick-off event features:

Jennifer Terry (Associate Professor of Women's Studies, UCIrvine) speaking on "Could Inter-species Affection Be a Model for Queer Science?"

Paul Vasey (Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Lethbridge) speaking on "Japanese Macaques and Samoan fa'afafine: What Cross-species and Cross-Cultural Research Tells Us about the Evolution of Non-conceptive Sex"

U-M discussants are Terri Conley (Psychology and Women's Studies) and Eric Plemons (Anthropology)

For complete information: http://irwg.research.umich.edu/funding/seed.html

Project shows benefits of applying sex and gender analysis in research

Teaser:

Gendered Innovations in Science, Health & Medicine and Engineering at Stanford University has developed 11 methods for integrating sex and gender analysis into research projects, and 14 case studies demonstrating the benefits of using them.

Editorial:

From Stanford University News:

Since Schiebinger launched the Gendered Innovations project in the summer of 2009, the project has produced 14 case studies to demonstrate how applying sex and gender analysis to research studies has helped create new knowledge and technologies.

The project was initiated with start-up funding from Stanford's Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research. Schiebinger, a former director of the Clayman Institute, is the editor of the 2008 book, Gendered Innovations in Science and Engineering.

All the project's peer-reviewed case studies can be found on its website, including:

Stem Cells: Analyzing Sex
Animal Research: Designing Health and Biomedical Research
De-Gendering the Knee: Overemphasizing Sex Differences as a Problem
Heart Disease in Women: Formulating Research Questions
Pregnant Crash Test Dummies: Rethinking Standards and Reference Models
Water: Participatory Research and Design

"The website is a resource for researchers," Schiebinger said. "It's globally accessible and freely available to anyone with an Internet connection.

An international cast of contributors

The Gendered Innovations project was developed through six international workshops. In 2011, the European Union joined the project, followed by the U.S. National Science Foundation in 2012.

"The project was created through a unique international collaboration of scientists, engineers and gender experts," Schiebinger said.

[...]

Source:

Stanford University News

URL:

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/july/gender-analysis-science-072612.html

Date:

July 27, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Sally Ride, First American Woman In Space, Is Dead

Teaser:

Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, died at 61 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Editorial:

From NPR:

In 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. She blasted off aboard Challenger, culminating a long journey that started in 1977 when the Ph.D. candidate answered an ad seeking astronauts for NASA missions.

In a lecture she gave at Berkeley, Ride said she saw the ad on Page 3 of the student newspaper.

"The moment I saw that ad, I knew that's what I wanted to do," she said.

Ride died today in La Jolla, Calif., after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer, her company said on its website.

She was 61.

According to her official biography, by the time Ride decided to apply to become an astronaut, she had already received degrees in physics and English and was on her way to a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University.

[...]

Source:

NPR

URL:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/07/23/157250870/sally-ride-first-american-woman-in-space-is-dead

Date:

July 24, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

More women may suffer from math anxiety than men

Teaser:

A University of Cambridge and University of Oxford study discovered that children who suffered from mathematics anxiety performed worse on math problems, affecting their performance. Girls suffered more math anxiety, even when they performed well.

Editorial:

From CBS News:

In a University of Cambridge and University of Oxford study that looked at 433 British schoolchildren, researchers discovered that those who suffered from mathematics anxiety performed worse on math problems, affecting their performance. The study was published in Behavioral and Brain Functions on July 9.

Overall, more girls were affected by math anxiety than the boys. However, there were no gender differences in performance even if the girls dreaded doing math more. Researchers concluded that girls may be able to do even better in math if it wasn't for their anxiety levels.

"These results might suggest that girls may have had the potential to perform better than boys in mathematics, however, their performance may have been attenuated by higher levels of (mathematics anxiety)," the study authors wrote.

[...]

Source:

CBS News

URL:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57469718-10391704/more-women-may-suffer-from-math-anxiety-than-men/

Date:

July 16, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Israel Existential Crisis Creates Haredi Breadwomen as Men Study

Teaser:

Editorial:

From Business Week:

Ultra-orthodox, or haredi, women are joining the Israeli labor force in increasing numbers and many are choosing to work in technology, attracted in part by the industry’s willingness to accommodate their religious lifestyle. While that has helped keep jobs that might otherwise have gone offshore, their husbands’ joblessness is a drag on economic growth, according to the Bank of Israel and the International Monetary Fund.

“A continued increase in the share of the population which does not participate in the workforce cannot continue forever, and so will have to stop,” Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer said earlier this year. The imbalance has to be corrected for the health of the economy, he added. The central bank predicts growth will slow to 3.1 percent this year from 4.8 percent in 2010 and 2011.

While the ultra-Orthodox make up about 8 percent to 10 percent of the population, they will represent 17 percent of working-age Israelis in 20 years because of their high birth rate, according to the bank. By the late 2050s they will account for a quarter of the population, a March 9 IMF report found.

[...]

Source:

Bloomberg Business Week

URL:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-06-27/israel-existential-crisis-creates-haredi-breadwomen-as-men-study

Date:

June 28, 2012

Affiliate:

Meet China’s First Female Astronaut—Maybe

Teaser:

China is going to send a woman into space for the first time.

Editorial:

From The Wall Street Journal:

The mission, announced just a few days ago, is moving forward rapidly: The Shenzhou-9 manned spacecraft to be used in the mission has already been strapped to its carrier rocket and the rocket already moved to the launch pad at a satellite launch center in northwest China.

All that remains is to choose the woman who will be on board when spacecraft shoots skyward.

On Tuesday, in what may or may not be a sign that the decision has been made, the state-run China Daily published a profile of 34-year-old fighter pilot Liu Yang, one of the two candidates tipped as the most likely to go where no Chinese woman has gone before.

[...]

Source:

The Wall Street Journal

URL:

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/06/13/meet-chinas-first-female-astronaut%E2%80%94maybe/

Date:

June 13, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Gender Differences in the Salaries of Physician Researchers

Teaser:

Researchers find that, all other things equal, female physicians still make approximately $12,000 per year less than their male counterparts.

Editorial:

Context It is unclear whether male and female physician researchers who perform similar work are currently paid equally.

Objectives To determine whether salaries differ by gender in a relatively homogeneous cohort of physician researchers and, if so, to determine if these differences are explained by differences in specialization, productivity, or other factors.

Design and Setting A US nationwide postal survey was sent in 2009-2010 to assess the salary and other characteristics of a relatively homogeneous population of physicians. From all 1853 recipients of National Institutes of Health (NIH) K08 and K23 awards in 2000-2003, we contacted the 1729 who were alive and for whom we could identify a mailing address.

Participants The survey achieved a 71% response rate. Eligibility for the present analysis was limited to the 800 physicians who continued to practice at US academic institutions and reported their current annual salary.

Main Outcome Measures A linear regression model of self-reported current annual salary was constructed considering the following characteristics: gender, age, race, marital status, parental status, additional graduate degree, academic rank, leadership position, specialty, institution type, region, institution NIH funding rank, change of institution since K award, K award type, K award funding institute, years since K award, grant funding, publications, work hours, and time spent in research.

Results The mean salary within our cohort was $167 669 (95% CI, $158 417-$176 922) for women and $200 433 (95% CI, $194 249-$206 617) for men. Male gender was associated with higher salary (+$13 399; P = .001) even after adjustment in the final model for specialty, academic rank, leadership positions, publications, and research time. Peters-Belson analysis (use of coefficients derived from regression model for men applied to women) indicated that the expected mean salary for women, if they retained their other measured characteristics but their gender was male, would be $12 194 higher than observed.

Conclusion Gender differences in salary exist in this select, homogeneous cohort of mid-career academic physicians, even after adjustment for differences in specialty, institutional characteristics, academic productivity, academic rank, work hours, and other factors.

Source:

JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association

URL:

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1182859

Date:

June 13, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Invisible Market Energy and Agricultural Technologies for Women's Economic Advancement

Submitted by asklar on Tue, 06/12/2012 - 9:59am

This research explores what it takes for technology initiatives, specifically in the energy and agricultural sectors, to reach and economically benefit women in developing countries through market-based strategies that have the potential for achieving scale and financial sustainability. It builds on ICRW’s landmark paper, Bridging the Gender Divide: How Technology Can Advance Women Economically, which made the case for how technologies can create pathways for strengthening women’s economic opportunities.

URL:

http://www.icrw.org/publications/invisible-market

Member Organization:

International Center for Research on Women

Women underrepresented in trials of many high-risk medical devices

Teaser:

Clinical trials for medical devices often do not include enough female subjects.

Editorial:

From The Day:

Hundreds of thousands of women at risk for irregular heart rhythms have a small, battery-powered gadget embedded in their chests. The implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) can be a lifesaver, shocking a dangerously fast heartbeat back to normal.
Yet the actual benefit to women is uncertain, because ICDs were approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) based on clinical trials made up mostly of men. That's typical of testing of many high-risk devices, according to medical reports. And even in the clinical device trials that do include women, generally the outcomes aren't reported by sex.

The result is a critical gap in the data doctors rely on when making decisions about a treatment's benefits and risks for women. It can also pose troubling dilemmas later on, said cardiologist Rita F. Redberg, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. That was the case in 2009, when data pooled from clinical trials showed that ICDs were no better than drugs at reducing a woman's risk of death.

"The time to collect data in both sexes is before FDA approval," said Redberg. "Especially with implanted devices, where there's no going back."

Only recently has the FDA proposed guidelines to improve the representation of women in clinical device trials. Intended for the medical device industry, which sponsors most of the research submitted for review, the guidelines are expected to become final by year's end. Similar standards for drug testing were put in place some 20 years ago, following a long period during which women of childbearing age were explicitly excluded from most studies.

In practice, the vast majority of medical devices reviewed by the FDA are cleared for use without human testing if they are deemed "substantially equivalent" to devices already on the market. Only 1 percent of devices undergo rigorous review and clinical trials before they can be marketed.

Even so, the new guidelines for device trials are an important advance, experts say. The proposed FDA guidelines are nonbinding, however, and some experts who favor the new recommendations are skeptical that the medical device industry will comply.

"Industry is always most attentive to the bottom line," said Christine Carter, vice president for scientific affairs at the Society for Women's Health Research (SWHR) in Washington. "So companies will continue to lament that trials are expensive and that recruiting more women is a problem." Device makers will change their study protocols just enough to meet FDA requirements, Carter predicted, but protocols will be "less than ideal for those of us concerned with sex differences and women's health."

[...]

Source:

The Day

URL:

http://www.theday.com/article/20120608/NWS13/306089924/1019&town=

Date:

June 8, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

The Women and People of Color Who Invented the Internet

Teaser:

Ms. examines the whitewashing that accompanies NYT's David Streitfeld's declaration that men invented the internet.

Editorial:

From the Ms. Blog:

A Sunday New York Times article by David Streitfeld has the feminist and tech worlds up in arms. Reporting on a sexual harassment suit filed by a junior partner in a venture capital firm, Streitfeld begins by proclaiming that “MEN invented the Internet” (those CAPS are his). I came across Streitfeld’s article after a friend suggested I check out tech journalist Xeni Jardin’s Twitter feed. Jardin’sresponse to Streitfeld:

WTF: “MEN invented the internet.” I’m sorry, did NYT just breeze past half a century of women in computer technology?

Herein lies the issue: Though Streitfeld primarily covers Ellen Pao’s lawsuit, he undermines his piece by leading with an emphatic and incorrect statement about men as sole inventors of the Internet. I’m not certain if Streitfeld was being tongue-in-cheek or if he simply has a narrow view of Internet history. But his article does incite, albeit unintentionally, necessary dialogue about the roles women–and racial and ethnic minorities–have played in Internet innovation. While some apparently assume that men alone developed the Internet, a quick glance at the Internet Hall of Fame’s 2012 inaugural inductees and the Early Internet Leaders list prove otherwise. (I also recommend reading History of the Internet).

In reality, the genesis of the Internet was a collaborative effort. It took decades of developments in computer programming and network technology. We can’t let the current cult of tech fandom around “white” men–such as Steve Jobs, whom Streitfeld name checks–obscure the women and the racial and ethnic minorities from around the world who contributed to the birth of the Internet.

Source:

Ms. Magazine

URL:

http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2012/06/04/the-women-and-people-of-color-who-invented-the-internet/

Date:

June 7, 2012

Affiliate:

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NCRW is a network of leading university and community based research, policy, and advocacy centers with a growing global reach dedicated to advancing rights and opportunities for women and girls. We also have a Corporate Circle comprised of senior diversity professionals from leading U.S. and global member companies and a Presidents Circle of college and university leaders who share our commitment. NCRW harnesses the collective power of its network to provide knowledge, analysis, and thought leadership on issues ranging from reducing women’s poverty to building a critical mass of women’s leadership across sectors.

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