National Geographic – Genius

This show does a lot to portray the degree to which women influenced Einstein’s development into *the* Einstein. A quote from the article above (written by Gia Mora) reads:

“From his first girlfriend to his lovers later in life, these women challenged him intellectually and emotionally, shaping the “man behind the mind.” Instead of sanitizing Einstein’s dalliances, showrunner Ken Biller (in adapting Walter Isaacson’s book, Einstein: His Life and Universe) embraces them to reveal the role women played in shaping how Einstein thought. This is no small matter considering that the way he conceived of ideas distinguished him from his contemporaries and still serves as the means by which we measure all future ‘geniuses.’”

Before watching this show, I personally knew next to nothing about Einstein’s childhood or his personal life, including the women in it. As I’ve watched, I’ve found that the treatment of the women in his life – his first wife Mileva Maric and his second wife Elsa Lowenthal – showed the great degree to which women not only influenced him, but as his woman contemporaries who at times matched his genius themselves.

Rutgers HackHers 2018

Check out the site!

Organized by Rutgers Women in Computer Science and the Douglass Project, this event is an incredible platform for women of all identities to explore their interest (or develop an interest) in coding and computer science. Geared towards women but not woman-exclusive, the HackHers event focuses on teamwork, healthy competition, and empowerment as we work together to close the gender gap in the tech industry/field (and is completely free!).

Kimberly Bryant

Kimberly Bryant – Founder of BlackGirlsCode

As an electrical engineer, she has worked in the biotechnology field at Genentech, Novartis vaccines, Diagnostics, Merck, and many more.

Here, she highlights the necessity of diversity, and our need to make it a top priority within modern business models. An excellent role model for African American women in STEM and in business!

Check out her LinkedIn + Twitter!

Women in Science – UNESCO Study

Read the full study here!

This project by the UIS and the UN has many other key features/resources, including more easy-to-read statistics that pertain to women in science, and other resources.

Two of these include the UNESCO’s For Women in Science Program, and the SAGA (STEM and Gender Advancement) project.

The For Women in Science Program is in partnership with the L’Oreal Corporate Foundation, and seeks out women researchers who have made great contributions to global challenges. They also offer awards, national and international fellowships to the women they recognize each year, in an effort to promote and encourage women throughout their scientific careers.

The second, the SAGA project, “determines, measures and assesses sex-disaggregated data, as well as supports the design and implementation of science, technology and innovation (STI) policy instruments that affect gender equality in STEM. Moreover, SAGA aims to analyse how policies affect the gender balance in STEM, undertake inventories of STI gender equality policies, develop new and better indicators to provide tools for evidence-based policy-making, build capacity in Member States for data collection on gender in STEM, and prepare methodological documents to support the collection of statistics.”

Checking In – Blog Post #10

Having run this blog for the past couple of months, I am very happy to say how much I’ve enjoyed it! It has been a goal of mine to start a blog like this for young people just entering into the professional world (with, as always, an emphasis on STEM of course!), so I was glad that I was afforded the time to do so through a class – killing two birds with one stone.

I think it will be a lot easier to run the blog and post consistently, beyond class-related content, during the break, which I intend to do – the end of this semester has me so busy it has become difficult to find the time to plan out posts or determine a doable posting schedule.

Perhaps most importantly, this blog has reinforced my interest in STEM culture, and has become a place wherein I am comfortable enough to share my own opinions, thoughts and experiences as a part of this community. I really want to put more of my personal experiences into future posts, such as my time as a part of a FIRST Robotics team in high school, and how that has informed my interests in goals now that I am a senior in college and planning for graduation.

Overall, I’m very glad to have this space to express myself, if nothing else, and to push me to remain active in STEM community!

Where Do We Fit In? – Blog Post #9

When I first launched this blog, I had it simply named the STEMinist. However, and as some of you may or may not have already noticed, I ended up changing the name to “The Young STEMinist”.

I found that what I wanted this blog to be was more to do with young women – not necessarily children, but women my age or close to it, who are still trying to gain their footing in the STEM community and in their careers. I felt that providing resources targeting college-aged women in particular to be something I hadn’t seen too much of, though I’m sure there are STEM blogs out there like this.

Most importantly, I wanted this space to serve as a way for me to express my individual thoughts and passions, and as a way to remind myself to stay updated on news in STEM. I think many of the STEM blogs out there are authored by professional women who are already well-established in the community and in their careers, and while I think this is fantastic, I wanted a space that could grow as I do – I’m still just on the cusp of launching into my professional life, so I wanted to use this blog to capture all of the interests, anxieties, questions, mistakes and triumphs that accompany the journey into professionalism for those of us who are just entering college, just leaving, or somewhere in between. In any case, the Young STEMinist is a work in progress, and so am I, and I can’t wait to see where else this space will go along with me!

Is the focus on the STEM gender gap having adverse effects?

A really interesting perspective on how may be most effective to approach the subject of women and the gender gap in STEM fields.

Read the full article here!

Peanutized! – Blog Post #8

Getting myself Peanutized was actually a really enjoyable process! Though my Peanut doesn’t match me 100%, I find this to definitely fit what I would look like in the Peanut world.

Not to get all deep and philosophical about it, but creating this also ended up being a combination of things I can recognize about myself as I am, as well as reflection of who I want to be. For example – I definitely wear a lot of black, so the mainly black attire is right on the money, but my hair isn’t that short in real life. Normally I cut it to an inch or less below my chin, but I’m letting it grow out (and I’m too lazy to go out and get it cut honestly). But I’ve always said I feel most like myself when my hair is cut short, so I incorporated this into my Peanut self. Also, I seem to suffer, as many do, from a serious resting bitch face and some shyness – lots of people have thought I’m angry or upset or whatever, when in reality I’m just staring off into space thinking about stuff, and am content as ever. Therefore I wanted to give my Peanut self a smile to counteract that and appear welcoming – this is how I want people to see me as much as it is how I actually look.

Luckily, there’s nothing philosophical, no deeper meaning, about the winter scene – it’s winterish now and I love the snow, so picking the snow-covered neighborhood scene was a no-brainer. I do always seem to be in a perpetual state of too-cold though, so maybe that has something to do with it?

All in all, I thought this was an awesome assignment, and I’m glad I was able to have so much fun in the process!

Getting Creative – Blog Post #7

I chose to feature this video on Dr. Rabia Sa’id – who serves as Deputy Dean of Student Affairs at Bayero University in Kano, Northern Nigeria and lectures undergraduate and postgraduate students in the Department of Physics. I have always felt the need to do what I can to emphasize women in low-income parts of the world who are excellent examples of success in STEM, because Western culture often paints a mental image of countries like Africa as being primitive and lacking modern technology, as well as not contributing much to the STEM world. This could not be further from the truth, and Dr. Sa’id is a perfect example of that!

Her advice to any women looking to get in STEM:

“They have to be very patient, it will not come suddenly, and it will not be easy. They will have to persevere, they will have to stay on focus, and they should not listen to any discouragement from the male. If they really want to do it, they should just go ahead and do it.”

 

**This video was originally published on March 24, 2015, and belongs to the user Mendeley.

By consulting the Fair-Use Checklist, I can categorize my use of this video in a number of ways, to justify its purpose here on the Young STEMinist blog.

1. Purpose – I am featuring this video for scholarship, and to comment on its use as a good resource and a source of encouragement for STEM women and girls. I am deriving no profit by posting about it, and I have provided credit to the original creator.
2. Nature – It is important to favored educational objectives (again, a good video to watch for young women interested in STEM)
3. Amount – It is a small quantity, meaning only one piece of media from the variety of media posted by Mendeley.
4. Effect – I am not creating any video(s) similar to this, and there is no significant effect on the market or the potential market for the copyrighted work.

Most importantly, as this video was found using the Creative Commons search engine, this video features a Creative Commons Attribution license, and therefore it is acceptable for me to reuse this content here on my personal blog.

Angry Feminist STEMinist? Internet Meme Culture and the Young STEMinist – Blog Post #6

Although I wasn’t sure I could find one, I set out to find a meme that directly relates to my blog’s purpose and discussion focus. This one, called “Condescending Wonka”, gained popularity around 2010-2011, solely based on it being a relatable facial expression – kind of a “oh, so you think you know something” condescending face. The one I chose is also obviously related to the “angry feminist” argument, from which several memes have originated.

This meme represents a popular, hegemonic argument against feminists and women – that they are irrational and overemotional, as if to say that what they are fighting for or against is overblown and therefore holds less value. I’ve always found the “angry feminist” trope to be really problematic and annoying – often, this discourages women from branding themselves as “feminists” because it posits feminists as hypocritical, irrational, and often stands in direct opposition to being attractive or desirable (cultural attention to being attractive to heterosexual men/defining attractiveness based on heterosexual/hyper-feminine/stereotypical traits is an entirely new problem anyway). In essence, being a feminist has come to be, within a large part of our culture, the antithesis of desirability and femininity, which couldn’t be further from the truth. In my mind, this image is a cultural tool utilized by those who represent the dominant ideology (rich, white, heterosexual men) as a way to downplay feminist arguments, as well as feminism itself.

The fact that so many memes like the one pictured above have surfaced from this cultural attack/backlash towards feminism is highly disturbing. While I can certainly laugh at things and I love the Wonka meme, I think this is a really interesting representation of how those in power can use popular culture to frame feminists as hypocrites and complainers, as if women have nothing to be angry about in this country. Feminists are angry, and rightfully so!