Women Scientists Do More Chores?

Check out this article:  http://chronicle.com/article/Female-Scientists-Do-More/63641/

I found it to be pretty interesting that even professional female scientists do more domestic chores than male scientists.  I would have thought that there would have been little to no difference between the two.  It amazes me that even when in a professional, time consuming position, the female always has to do the laundry so to speak.  This brings up something else that this article made me think about.  With regards to having children, I wonder how many men have thought about how having a kid would affect their life.? Not just their personal time but their professional time as well?  When I asked myself that same question, I realized that I had never thought that way.  I have always planned on having children in the future, but I never thought about how that would affect my care, I just assumed it wouldn’t.  It would seem to me that men tend to not think about these things because they assume the women they have the children with, will be the one to make the career sacrifice and stay home with the children.  Is this a fair assumption to be made? I think not.  What if women collectively decided to not worry about who stayed home after a child was born and decided to just continue on with work and assume someone would take care of it?  I think we would have a lot of “Home Alone” incidents to deal with.

Top Paying Jobs for Women

“Best Paying Jobs For Women”

Here’s an article that details some of the best paying jobs for women over recent years.  It is interesting to see that the number one spot went to chief executive positions.  Although this is the best paying job for women, they only hold around 25% of the positions in the field according to the article, and yet make only about three quarters what their male counter parts make.  See the earlier post on AAUW for more on the gender pay gap.  Pharmacy and Computer program also ranked high on the list.  Pharmacy seems to be a rapidly expanding field for women, the article states that they hold around half of the jobs.  Computer programmers was a pleasant surprise.  Women make up about 20% of the work force in this field, but actually earn around the same as men in the same job.  That is something to celebrate to say the least.

What’s your theory on “the Big Bang Theory”?

The Big Bang Theory is a popular t.v. sitcom that follows the interaction between a group of extremely nerdy men and their attractive female neighbor across the hall.  The guys, are the essence of pop culture’s idea of men more concerned with their science experiments and star wars, than social skills and girls.  Their neighbor, is the typical pretty girl who is more concerned with her hair and make up, than any of the sciency geeky stuff the guys are into.  To be frank, this set up makes for a very entertaining half hour of television.  But is there something wrong with the message, although unintended, by this show?  Does the show send a message about women and science? What about the image of men who love science?  It may all be in good fun, but does television show’s like the Big Bang Theory, reflect the attitude of society?  Here’s an interesting follow up article about why the image of science as being “geeky or nerdy” turns women away from computer science.  But I think it could be applied to all scientific disciplines.

Nerdiness Turns Women Off to Computer Science

Thoughts?

Not Just an American Problem

Women in science: Pioneers blaze path for others

Here’s an article about the discrimination of women professors in England in science, engineering and technology studies.  The article talks about some of the same problems that are experienced here in America when it comes to women in scientific fields or research.  Namely, the lack of representation of women in these fields as well as the lack of flexibility for things like maternity leave.  The article presents an interesting statistic about women graduating with a degree in science, engineering and tech. “It is thought that the subject’s “nerdy” image puts girls off studying science beyond GCSE, and the sector also struggles to retain female graduates, with more than 70 per cent of women science graduates deciding on non-science related careers.”  I’m interested to know if there is a similar problem here in the US and what percentage of women choose a non science related field.  The Royal Society, a famous science organization which recognizes scientists who have done great work, has recently identified a list of top ten women scientists in British history.  Up until 1945, women weren’t allowed in the Royal Society, and continued to be discriminated against afterword.  The article also highlights on some current day women scientists which is worth a look.  If you find something interesting, surprising or anything, make a comment!

AAUW (American Association of University Women)

AAUW

Here’s an interesting organization whose goal is to help further equality for women and girls.  The website has links to multiple studies that are being conduction related to gender based discrimination in the work and place today.  I would call attention to two studies, “Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics” as well as “The Gender Pay Gap“.  The first study has a great power point, both a long and short version, with some great insight into why women are not as well represented in science and engineering fields.  There is also a video worth watching from Nobel Laureate Carol Greider.  The second study has detail information about the pay differences between women and men throughout the United States.  There is a great interactive map that breaks down the statistics for each state.  It is interesting to see how each state differs when it comes to the pay of working women and men.  These studies are definitely worth a look!  Comment on anything interesting you find.