500 Women Scientists

Role of Men as Mentors for Women in Medicine. If we must change the current gender imbalance in medicine, then men in medicine who currently hold the bulk of leadership positions, should step up as mentors to women in medicine.

Friday 5th July 2019 marks the second International Day of LGBTQ+ People in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (#LGBTSTEMDay). Today, instead of writing our own post, we want to share this awesome toolkit that Pride in STEM and many others have put together for anyone who would like to organize an event or get-together to mark LGBTSTEMDay.

How do you say NO ONE IS ILLEGAL in your language? In dutch it is Niemand is Illegaal. I’d love to get a collection together, tag us or post in the comments. Find out what else you can do to support immigrants who are being displaces and mistreated in our weekly #TAT post below.

Happy solstice!

Juneteenth commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas on June 19, 1865. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, technically freeing enslaved people in the Confederate states, but enslaved people in Texas weren’t aware of their freedom until the official announcement arrived in Galveston, TX. This is why Juneteenth is so significant. Civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer once noted that “nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” There were still enslaved people who had not yet received this news of freedom - which means that slavery was not over.

We are all still riding high from last week’s board meeting in Seattle. Our time together was filled with optimism, growth and communication, but we also felt the weight of the important work ahead. We are really excited for our summer projects - fundraising for #FellowshipfortheFuture, rebuilding the Request platform, and developing more resources for our pods. If you have ideas and just want to get involved, let us know! Happy Weekend.

In its Declaration of Professional Responsibility, the American Medical Association (AMA) declares that physicians have a responsibility to “advocate for social, economic, educational, and political changes that ameliorate suffering and contribute to human well-being.” Another perspective builds on this definition, and defines advocacy as, “action by a physician to promote those social, economic, educational, and political changes that ameliorate the suffering and threats to human health and well-being that he or she identifies through his or her professional work and expertise.”

Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the public release of the National Academies’ report, “Sexual Harassment of Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine.” Removing sexual harassment and discrimination from our scientific culture is going to require persistent and coordinated efforts for meaningful change to actually happen. Supporting system-wide policies like the aforementioned legislation, and working to support survivors and improve institutions on a local level are critical to spurring change.

Friends, we are hosting our 5th leadership meeting this weekend! We are so proud to still be working hard to change the institutions of science to be more open, inclusive and accessible. We have a great team in Seattle this weekend, and are excited to share with you the outcomes of the meeting. Enjoy your weekend!

Happy Pride Month! This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, where black transwomen fought back against harassment from the police in Greenwich Village in June 1969. Though Pride today isn’t seen as a riot, the thread of activism has to be woven through our celebrations as actions.

We are busy making the final preparation for our biannual leadership meeting next weekend in Seattle! Really excited to strategize next steps for our organization. Do you have ideas and suggestions, send us an email or DM on twitter, we love hearing from you.

We are scientists and we believe that evidence, not ideology, should inform healthcare decisions. The wave of anti-abortion laws across the United States are the latest in a long string of attempts to remove autonomy, falsely using science to justify denying people's constitutional rights and inflicting lasting damage.

The efforts to ban access to abortion affects all people who can get pregnant. Remember: not all women can get pregnant and not all people who get pregnant are women. Attempts to limit access to legal and safe abortion are in violation of human rights and force illegal abortions, which threaten lives and health.  It is important to know that today, abortion is not illegal in any U.S. state. But the lawmakers in Alabama, Georgia, Ohio and more U.S. are trying hard to change that, starting in individual states, but threatening to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

A couple of months ago, I was in the middle of a discussion regarding what was considered the “best” specialties for women physicians. Many of the people involved in this discussion weren’t physicians, but some were. And while the discussion was mostly dominated by men in the group, some women were also present. Suffice it to say that I was shocked by the opinions voiced by this group, including that of some of the women present. Some believed that there were specialties “meant” for women, while others were specifically designed for our male colleagues.

May is mental health awareness month. Yet, open discussion of mental health continues to be a social taboo, is seldom discussed in popular media, and is rarely made a priority. This take action Tuesday calls on us all to do a few small things to broaden access to mental health services and increase mental health awareness.

The weekly-wrap is a time to reflect on our successes but we don’t want to ignore the challenges and set-backs. In Georgia, women’s rights are being challenged. In Colorado, there was another school shooting. We reject the idea that we have to continue to repeat history, but we see our work is not close to being finished. Thank you to every one of you who is putting the work in day after day to enact real change to our society. You are appreciated.