thusspakezuska
Posts by this author
February 23, 2007
So, they've been handing out this award for 40 years. For 39 of them, they couldn't see fit to find any woman qualified to receive it. But FINALLY! Yay! Three cheers for Frances E. Allen, 2006 winner of the Turing Award and its $100,000 prize!
She only had to wait until she was 75, and…
February 22, 2007
Absinthe has asked me to do a mirror post of her post on this issue. So, here it is.
Several months ago I told you about the Kay Weber v Fremilab lawsuit in my post Class action lawsuits. If you read the link to her federal court Complaint contained in that post, you will see that she lived…
February 22, 2007
There's a new feed available on Science Blogs, and it's called ScienceBlogs Select. Basically, what you get if you subscribe to this feed is the very best of all of Science Blogs. Each of us flags two or three posts per week to go into this feed, something that we consider to be exceptionally…
February 22, 2007
The other day I wrote
Previously, primate groups were generally seen to be composed of harems, ignoring the active roles of females in mate choice and aggressive sexual behavior with multiple mates. But the entry of women with a feminist perspective into this field opened up the kinds of…
February 22, 2007
Perhaps you will recall a somewhat controversial post awhile back delicately titled The Origin of "Puke On His Shoes". In that post I described the persistent, annoying, unwanted attentions of a male passenger on an Amtrak train, despite my (what should have been obvious) signal that I was…
February 22, 2007
I've been away for awhile enjoying my usual spate of migraines that pop up at the end of a botox treatment cycle. On top of that I'm getting physical therapy for neck and shoulder pain caused by the chronic migraines; being on the computer seems to aggravate it. I'll try to ease myself back in…
February 17, 2007
I got an announcement over the WEPAN listserv about a National Research Council workshop:
I am pleased to inform you about a National Research Council workshop on "Understanding Interventions that Encourage Minorities to Pursue Research Careers: Major Questions and Appropriate Methods" that will…
February 15, 2007
I have a friend who is always making up the most wonderful names for his female friends by adding the syllable "stress" to unusual words. My favorite was one he gave me after a nefarious piece of business: underminestress. Believe me, the person deserved it. Anyway, I say all this by way of…
February 15, 2007
You absolutely must read these two posts:
Tara at Aetiology writes about There's No Crying in Academia!
Her post was inspired by Am I A Woman Scientist? who wrote That Little Sucker Just Saved Your Life.
Both posts are about crying in the workplace - women do, men don't (usually). Men think…
February 15, 2007
It's Girl Scout cookie season, and maybe that's why this appeals to me even more than I thought it would. Scouts, badges - what's not to love?
Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique
Read the launch announcement over at the World's Fair.
It's open to anybody…
February 14, 2007
I hope everyone is enjoying the course so far. I'm having a good time, and I'm looking forward to some of the readings coming up. Speaking of which, all the readings for week 2 come from Building Inclusive Science: Connecting Women's Studies and Women in Science and Engineering special issue,…
February 13, 2007
This is the third of three discussion posts for Week 1 of Feminist Theory and the Joy of Science. You can find all posts for this course by going to the http://scienceblogs.com/thusspakezuska/archives.php>archives and clicking on "Joy of Science" under in the Category section.
This post deals…
February 12, 2007
This is the second of three discussion posts for Week 1 of Feminist Theory and the Joy of Science. You can find all posts for this course by going to the archives and clicking on "Joy of Science" under in the Category section.
This post deals with the readings by Silverman and by Wenneras &…
February 12, 2007
This is the first of three discussion posts for Week 1 of Feminist Theory and the Joy of Science. You can find all posts for this course by going to the archives and clicking on "Joy of Science" under in the Category section.
This post deals with the readings by Eisenhart & Finkel and…
February 12, 2007
On the syllabus, I listed some questions for consideration when analyzing the readings for this week:
Why might women want to become scientists or engineers? Would their possible motivations differ from, or be in addition to, things that might make men want to become scientists or engineers?
I…
February 12, 2007
Welcome to the first day of our course on "Feminist Theory and the Joy of Science". This post will be a presentation of the summaries for each of this week's assigned readings. If you were not able to do the readings or couldn't get access to the books, I hope this post will give you a good…
February 11, 2007
It's almost time for class to start, and people will want to comment on the posts I'll be making. I thought I'd offer a few guidelines for "class discussion".
There will be two basic types of posts for each set of readings. One post will include the citation/summary/analyses of each assigned…
February 11, 2007
What is it with the techie women pin-up calendar business?
First, we had the loathesome Geek Gorgeous calendar.
Then came the misbegotten IT Screen Goddess calendar.
Now Skookumchick brings us news of young women engineers at the University of Illinois who have posed, scantily clad and nearly…
February 10, 2007
Young Female Scientist asks, Is Science A Free Country?
It seems that those who criticize the scientific system are assumed to be bad scientists.
Surely, goes the assumption, they are not successful, and that has made them bitter. Their concerns are irrelevant.
I highly recommend her brief,…
February 10, 2007
My laptop appears to be suddenly dying, one component at at time...first the touchpad went away, and now the keyboard doesn't work. I can still operate it with an external mouse and keyboard but I'm afraid it's about to die on me completely. Fortunately I have everything backed up but if it does…
February 10, 2007
I saw a commercial on t.v. the other night for something called the "Gender Knee" so I looked for it on the web and voila!
The First and Only Knee Replacement Shaped to Fit a Woman's Anatomy
Now, I'm not sure I love all the rhetoric on their website:
From the cells in their bodies to their taste…
February 8, 2007
What is diversity?
People talk about it all the time. We say we want to increase diversity. We want to have more diversity on our faculty or in our workforce. We want to manage diversity for success. We have diversity programs and diversity training and diversity workshops. So we must know…
February 8, 2007
John Wilkins at Evolving Thoughts is keeping a list of all the Basic Concepts posts that my Science Blogger pals have been doing. You can find his list here. He is keeping it pretty up to date.
There are several entries worth taking a look at as a nice preliminary for the start of "class" next…
February 6, 2007
I like to scan the New Scholarly Books section of the Chronicle of Higher Education; every so often, something interesting in History of Science or Women's Studies pops up. Recently I saw a little blurb under history of science that read
Science in Latin America: A History, edited by Juan José…
February 5, 2007
Low on cash? Need to repay student loans? Not bothered by morals or respect for reality? Then the American Enterprise Institute has a deal for you!
... according to an article in The Guardian, a British newspaper [the AEI], a right-leaning think tank that has received more than $1.6-million from…
February 2, 2007
Another AWIS Washington Wire in my inbox today. Here are a few tidbits I thought looked especially interesting:
Why Aren't More Women in Science? Top Researchers Debate the Evidence
This 248-page book is a collection of 15 essays by experts on gender differences in ability. They consider the…
January 31, 2007
Kristin wrote, in a comment:
Hey, although a search for blogs by Hispanic scientists is coming up empty, it looks like there's a new anthology by female Hispanic scientists and engineers! But you can't find it in the online bookstores. Looks like if you want a copy, you have to email NCantu AT…
January 31, 2007
Mollishka writes to ask plaintively:
"Feminist theory of science"?! Other than a nice set of buzzwords, what does that even mean??
So I thought, why not go ahead and launch the Basic Concepts idea now?
On the super-secret Scienceblogs back channel, we have been discussing the idea of each doing a…
January 29, 2007
See Bill Hooker's comment about finding books for the course here.
Bill's comment got held up a day or so in junk comments because of all the links in it. Sorry, Bill! But this would be helpful for anyone trying to find/buy the books.
January 29, 2007
Female Science Professor describes the amazing (and amazingly depressing) power of invisibility women in science seem to possess - at least when Distinguished Schmucks are visiting the department:
A male colleague and I walked up to the Distinguished Visitor in the hallway, and the visitor stuck…