Saturday, April 13, 2013

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

STEM jobs for women make economic sense

Posted: 12 Apr 2013 04:39 AM PDT

employing women, STEM, role models, sciencesLeaders in science and technology push for more visible female role models.

Leaders in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) fields of work are finally beginning to see positive change in the numbers of women in the industries.

Good news for a society in which the average social gamer is a 43 year-old woman, and women make up 55 per cent of Twitter users.

Karen Purcell, president of PK Electrical, an electrical design, engineering and consulting firm in Reno, Nevada, USA, and author of Unlocking Your Brilliance: Smart Strategies for Women to Thrive in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math said that she hopes her book is obsolete in ten years.

"The cultural bias is changing," she said. "I think in a few years we'll see more young women choosing STEM careers – and succeeding brilliantly at them."

Brilliant they may be, but recent sexist comments following the unmasking of a popular science writer as female revealed continued entrenched stereotyping, despite the fact that women generally outperform men in education and account for nearly half of the UK's workforce.

STEM industries clearly suffer from a lack of diversity, with only 5.3 per cent of working women employed in any science, engineering and technology (SET) jobs, compared to 31.3 per cent of all working men.

Dismayingly for the women who turn away from STEM careers, the pay gap is generally smaller in those jobs than in others.

In the United States, for example, women with STEM jobs earn 33 per cent more than women in comparable but non-STEM jobs.

Industry leaders agree that more needs to be done to help women take advantage of such benefits.

Two leaders in technology, entrepreneur Michal Tsur and Leah Belsky, a fellow at Yale Law School's Information Society Project, said, "If there is one place where women have the greatest chance to carve new paths toward a fulfilling life and career, it's in tech."

The advantage the tech industry has over others is that it ‘values flexibility and innovative thinking, working remotely is more acceptable than in other industries, younger generations raised with egalitarian values dominate technology start-ups, and the industry is ripe for on-the-job learning.’

Although, since Tsur and Belsky wrote in TechCrunch, an international debate started – and continues – over Yahoo Chief Executive Melissa Mayer's decision to rescind home-working rights from the company's employees.

In formal education, the numbers of women studying STEM subjects are beginning to creep towards the numbers of men.

Many graduate science programmes report near equality, and the numbers of female technology students currently make up 41 per cent of Harvard's 2013 Computer Science majors.

Beyond education, consensus is growing about what more can be done to continue these advances.

STEM has long suffered from the stereotype of the solitary, socially-awkward man alone in a lab or behind a computer, and many see the image of their industry as one of three major obstacles in the path to equality.

Widespread lack of understanding of the creativity and collaboration that is part of a career in STEM, media-reinforced stereotypes, and the lack of high-profile female role models have been a powerful combination in the perpetuation of the disparity between genders.

Claire McNulty, Director of Science and Sustainability at the British Council, said, "We need to show that science can be applied to the issues that really make a difference."

Jennifer Tour Chayes, distinguished scientist and managing director of Microsoft Research New England, concurred.

She said, "The media portrays STEM careers as less collaborative and creative than those in the arts and humanities.

"However, each and every day, I get to be creative and collaborative doing science and envisioning new technologies.

“We need to amplify this message to everyone who doesn't fit the standard STEM stereotype, and embrace people who can work collaboratively and design the future."

Additionally, she said she was incredibly passionate about the interdisciplinary nature of STEM and was “constantly inspired by the opportunity to take insights from one discipline and use them to fuel discoveries in another.”

New research from FEM Inc and the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center shows the ways in which media, particularly scripted TV shows, affect the gender gap in STEM fields of work.

The report concluded that the ‘evidence indicates that the existence of widespread, negative, cultural stereotypes associating gender with STEM ability lowers societal expectations for women in STEM.’

This can be countered by ‘showing girls non-stereotypical images of women in STEM.

‘Given the increasing amount of time spent by children and adolescents consuming mass media – especially on television, computers and other digital devices – we have a unique and powerful opportunity to present young girls with different images of women and STEM.’

Senior STEM professional after senior STEM professional agrees and cites the need for role models and mentors.

Heidi Kleinbach-Sauter, senior vice president, Global Foods R&D, PepsiCo, said that "While this is a complex problem, I believe that one of the biggest challenges is a lack of credible mentors in the field to excite and inspire students and young employees.

"Mentors play a critical role in bringing new people – and particularly women – to careers in STEM."

Carmel McQuaid, climate change manager at Marks and Spencer, said that "Without access to affordable [child]care, and to good role models and mentors, we may fail to maximise the potential of women and their experience to drive change."

Purcell says that "Mentors can make a big difference, all through your career. At any stage, but especially when you're just starting out."

Edward Daniels, chairman of Shell UK, said, "We need to help make female role models in our industry more visible to challenge preconceptions around engineering being 'just for boys.'"

Marissa Mayer, the first female engineer at Google and currently Chief Executive of Yahoo, said, "The number one most important thing we can do to increase the number of women in tech is to show a multiplicity of different role models."

And until equality is reached, at least one leader sees being female in the STEM industries as a strategic advantage.

Padmasree Warrior, chief technology and strategy officer at Cisco Systems, said "I always tell women that the fact that you're different and that you're noticed, because there are few of us in the tech industry, is something you can leverage as an advantage."

While the gender gap continues to affect the outputs of the STEM industries, it also affects the economy.

Daniels states the case strongly, saying that "The chronic shortage of girls going into science and engineering is not simply a question of gender equality, it is a huge threat to economic growth.

"We are losing out on untapped talent and failing to keep pace with our competitors."

In business, when women take the lead, the difference is notable.

Women entrepreneurs begin with 12 per cent of the funding of their male counterparts, yet have 12 per cent higher revenues.

Companies with three or more female board directors outperform companies with zero female board members in a number of ways, including by 60 per cent return on invested capital.

And "at the most basic level," said Jeremy Greenwood, managing director of Lafarge Readymix UK, "bringing more women into STEM translates into increased diversity, leading to more innovative problem solving and better results overall."

With the US Department of Commerce predicting that STEM job openings will grow 17 per cent by 2018, the future for women in science, technology, engineering and math could be bright.

Teachers take on ‘rebranded sexism’

Posted: 12 Apr 2013 02:02 AM PDT

NUT, sex education, women's rightsNUT considers campaign to make Sex and Relationships Education in schools compulsory.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) met for their annual conference in Liverpool last week, and high on their agenda was the subject of sexism and the damage it is causing to girls and young women.

During a resolution debated at the start of the week, concerns were raised that young women and girls were being sexualised too early and that women's liberation had been set back forty years by a 'raunch' culture, where sexism and inequality were alive and well and 'still a huge factor in shaping women's lives'.

Teachers said that the sexism of old had not gone away but had been 'rebranded' as something fashionable, ironic or empowering, where young girls were learning to accept as normal the exploitation and objectification of women's bodies.

They cited pole dancing being sold as ‘an empowering form of exercise’ and the wide availability – and growing social acceptance – of pornographic images as causing long term damage and having 'a disastrous effect on the self-image of girls'.

'Far from being 'ironic' or 'empowering', the rise of the new sexism is damaging.

‘Growing up in a world where it is normal for women's bodies to be seen as sex objects affects the way that girls in our schools grow to view themselves and their place in society,' the NUT said.

While a 'lads mag' culture is something that is depressingly visible in everyday life, it is quite shocking to hear of young girls being sold Playboy pencil cases and intelligent young women taking part in student beauty pageants.

It seems, then, that the sexualisation and objectification of women is still happening, but it is becoming frighteningly normalised by a culture that embraces Esquire and GQ Magazine, and encourages women to be image-centric, where, in terms of clothing, less seems to be more.

And it is also jarring in its blatancy.

Only a few weeks ago the editor of Esquire Magazine bluntly stated to a feminist discussion panel, doh! – that the women featured in the magazine were little more than ornaments, and that readers were not interested in women's brains, just their bodies.

So we are basically living in – and allowing to flourish – a culture that says, out loud and proud, that it is normal, nay fashionable and edgy, to objectify women.

Or as NUT member Sara Tomlinson put it 'Women's bodies have long been seen as commodities, but the only difference now is we are supposed to celebrate our commodification as empowerment.'

So it is reassuring to hear that teachers have decided that they are in a position to do something about it, to educate the next generations out of the social acceptance of this new breed of sexism.

The agenda and notes published for NUT delegates included a section on equality, which was debated during the course of the conference, noting that, 'As educators, teachers are in an ideal position to challenge sexism and gender stereotyping, helping girls and young women to feel confident and secure both academically and socially.'

It also noted that the 'Conference is deeply concerned about the rise of what has become commonly known as 'raunch culture' where the old sexism of the past has been rebranded by big business.

‘In particular, the gains of the last 40 years in terms of women's sexual liberation are being turned back on women and girls in commodified form.

' The objectification of women's bodies is playing an ever more horrifying role in society and is having a disastrous effect upon the self-image of girls and young women.'

The NUT also raised concerns about the sex education curriculum in schools, particularly in light of the announcement a few weeks ago by the coalition government that Personal, Social Health and Economic education would not be made statutory, and there would be no mainstreaming programme or guidance from Westminster.

Given the fact that school is where most young people learn about sex and begin to form relationships, this could have a detrimental ripple effect on generations of young women.

Christine Blower, NUT General Secretary, said: 'If schools do not have the time and are not encouraged to invest in this area of the curriculum, then some pupils will be left to struggle with issues that can seem insurmountable and they will miss the chance to acquire vital life skills.'

To counter this, the NUT suggested a campaign to make the delivery of Sex and Relationships Education in schools compulsory.

They also made a series of recommendations which included actions to 'commission a study into the attitudes of girls and young women towards their bodies; disseminate and, where necessary, produce anti-sexist teaching materials' and 'support the women and men who protest against these manifestations of the new sexism'

Ms Blower explained why teachers are taking up the issue.

She said: 'There have been legal advances, but women still suffer significant inequality.

‘Austerity is making women poorer and sexism still needs challenging to ensure that all women can achieve their full potential.

'Teachers are in a good position to empower girls and gay women to be self-confident and to reject stereotypes.

'It is important for all children and young people to learn, in an age-appropriate manner, about respect for their own and other people’s bodies and emotions.'

The significance of this work cannot be underestimated.

Giving our children the tools to respect each other and treat each other equally will have an inestimable impact.

Maybe it is the grown ups who need a little extra help.

Finding the Bible’s hidden perspectives

Posted: 12 Apr 2013 01:17 AM PDT

Hidden Perspectives, bible, ladiyfest, sheffield, logoNew Sheffield University and LaDIYfest Sheffield project explores gender and sexuality in the Bible.

by Hannah Boast, LaDIYfest Sheffield

A new project recovering the 'Hidden Perspectives' in the Bible on gender and sexuality was launched on 11 April in Sheffield.

The project is a partnership between the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield and LaDIYfest Sheffield, a local activist group whose work has previously been covered by WVoN.

The launch was the first event of a series in the city which will bring together participants from a wide range of backgrounds and with many different faith and non-faith perspectives.

The first major event will be a day-long festival on 1 June at the Showroom, Sheffield.

It will feature performances and exhibitions by artists, musicians, writers, activists, academics and students responding to aspects of the Bible.

The project will consider how new readings of the Bible might challenge and resist dominant interpretations that can sometimes form the basis of oppressive attitudes towards people because of their gender or sexuality.

Discriminatory interpretations of the Bible have made the news in recent years with the rise of American-style anti-choice groups in the UK such as the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) and 40 Days for Life.

40 Days for Life has held 'vigils' outside British Pregnancy Advisory Service clinics that have intimidated patients and staff.

In Ireland abortion remains banned on religious grounds and women like Savita Halappanavar, in October 2012, can still die following a miscarriage.

The Bible has also featured in the debate over equal marriage in the UK.

Members of the Church of England and other religious groups opposed to equal marriage have claimed biblical prohibitions on gay relationships in support of their arguments.

A project which explores alternative perspectives on the Bible risks antagonising feminists who are sceptical of religion on grounds that might seem well-justified given the examples above.

This approach might also provoke religious people who follow traditional interpretations of the Bible, leading to further resentment.

However, Dr Katie Edwards, lecturer in the Department of Biblical Studies and leader of the Hidden Perspectives project, says that its purpose is not to fuel conflict but to open up discussion.

'The basic tenet is to create a project that offers other possibilities for reading the biblical text, and the aim is to resist interpretations that have proved harmful from an LGBT perspective rather than to denigrate faith,' she said.

Approaching the Bible with openness rather than hostility could also be a step towards helping progressive religious feminists, who often describe feeling criticised or made to feel unwelcome within feminism because of their beliefs, to feel included in the movement.

Christian feminist Hannah Mudge writes of being treated as if she has been 'brainwashed' or is suffering from Stockholm syndrome.

The 'Hidden Perspectives' project brings together artists, activists and academics to think differently about the Bible in an atmosphere of openness and curiosity.

By doing so, we hope to alter the popular feminist image of the Bible from that of an 'oppressive instrument of patriarchy' to a text whose 'Hidden Perspectives' also have the potential to be seriously subversive.