Friday, September 28, 2012

80 cents to the dollar

  Despite our attempts at (and pride in) objectivity, gender bias exists within the sciences (I don't think I need to cite that statement). And a new article by Moss-Racusin et al. published in PNAS shows this bias extends to hiring and pay in academic departments. This article has received a lot of attention (including articles in the New York Times, Scientific American, and Discover Magazine) and details how the same application packet was evaluated differently based on the gender of the candidate. If the application was associated with a male, the average competency rating was 4 vs. 3.3 for a female. The average starting salary for a female applicant was $26,508, almost $4,000 dollars (~87%) less than the average male starting salary.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Cliche for a reason


  It’s ‘Post-doc appreciation’ week! Well, it’s the end of the week, but at least it was ‘hug a post-doc and perhaps give them a raise (please)’ week. I’m only a newly-minted post-doc, but I already realize how in-betweenish we are.

Friday, September 14, 2012

I will only work using pink pipets

  You may have already seen this video – it and responses to it made a big splash this summer, and not necessarily in a good way. It uses stereotypes of girls (makeup, beautiful models) to battle the stereotype of science (male, in a lab coat, though we do already know that lab coats are hot). When I think of all the alternatives that could send a more positive and affirming message, such as using real bad-ass female scientists doing real science (sure, take the production values up, that’s okay), I wonder why this made it so far.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Career Paths III - New Plant Biology Professor

There are the people that inspire us at a young age to pursue (in my case) science, and then there are the women that help you achieve that career. Today’s ‘career exploration’ is from a woman who mentored me while we were both in graduate school. Her enthusiasm is infectious, her lab skillz invaluable, and she was/is an amazing teacher. She’s now a new faculty member at a small liberal arts college whose students don’t know how lucky they are.