Day: February 12, 2013

The Everyday Sexism Project

jennysaul3 Comments

Check it out!

The Everyday Sexism Project exists to catalogue instances of sexism experienced by women on a day to day basis. They might be serious or minor, outrageously offensive or so niggling and normalised that you don’t even feel able to protest. Say as much or as little as you like, use your real name or a pseudonym – it’s up to you. By sharing your story you’re showing the world that sexism does exist, it is faced by women everyday and it is a valid problem to discuss.

Know Your History (and Know Yourself)

Stacey Goguen5 Comments

First, I want to make fun of myself for doing something that I recently made fun of other people for doing.  Someone (probably a blogger) pointed out that it’s weird that, for Black History Month, two people prominently talked about are MLK and Lincoln.  A joke was made, something to the effect of, “Wow, white people can’t even bring themselves to talk about two Black people for Black History Month.  They just *have* to throw in a white person.”  I had a good laugh at the expense of those pathetic, clueless white people.

And then I basically went and did the same thing.

I meant for this post to be about Black History Month and feature a bunch of awesome women in history…but for some reason, at the very top, I was talking about and showcasing a white dude.  Thankfully I caught that before I hit publish.  But seriously, not cool, me.*

Okay here’s the post:

For those of us who know why we have Black History Month, I want to share some stories of people I’ve come across on the blog Cool Chicks from History

Mae Jemison – “A chemical engineer, physician, and former Peace Corp volunteer, Mae Jemison was inspired by Star Trek’s Lieutenant Uhura to join NASA in 1987.  On September 12, 1992 she became the first black woman in space.”

“When I’m asked about the relevance to Black people of what I do, I take that as an affront. It presupposes that Black people have never been involved in exploring the heavens, but this is not so. Ancient African empires — Mali, Songhai, Egypt — had scientists, astronomers. The fact is that space and its resources belong to all of us, not to any one group.” – Mae Jemison

More women after the jump!

Read More »

Bug Girl Comes Out of Her Internet Coccoon

redeyedtreefrog2 Comments

Bug Girl is one of my favourite science bloggers.

Who is Bug Girl? Her WordPress bio reads: “Bug_Girl has a PhD in Entomology. Her bug research involves using pheromones to try to control insect populations without pesticides.  She’s been blogging about insects since before you were born.”

And she’s been having a rough time on the academic job market:

I am still job hunting, and I’ve had some epiphany moments about what I should be doing with my life.   I’m having an actual Mid-Life Crisis!

I’m still unemployed, at least in the sense of having a full-time job with medical benefits, which is actually kind of important. Since, you know, Mid-Life is when everything breaks.

I’ve had some interviews for the sort of high level, higher education administration stuff that I’ve been doing since I got laid off in Michigan, and I think most of them have gone well. I’m hoping for an offer soon.
But. OVARIES.

You see, being in a Vice-Provost’s office or a Dean’s office is not my natural habitat. It’s not just the suit-wearing, although I do NOT enjoy suits.  It’s the people in the offices. No. Sense. Of. Humor.

She’s also decided to stop being Bug Girl on the web and not Bug Girl in academic life. Something had to give. She writes, “Instead of hiding my secret identity, why don’t I just find a job that lets me wear the cape and tights all day, every day?”

You need to read the whole story! So for more about the crisis, job search, and new directions go look at “We don’t talk about ovaries here,”