Take Action Tuesday

February is Black History Month in the US. We will spend this month educating ourselves about and highlighting the contributions of women of color to science.

In her PLOS February 2017 blog, Hilda Bastian writes "Some of the same forces responsible for stacking the odds against African-American women thriving and achieving in science are in play all over again when it comes to who we see [in the public sphere] now. And Diann Jordan writes, “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few” when it comes to stories about black women and their contributions in science. 

This Tuesday, we are going calling to our community and supporters to take the time to educate ourselves. You can start by checking out the #BlackAndSTEM and #VanguardSTEM hashtags on Twitter. And if you're a teacher in search of some lessons plans this month around this topic, AAAS has you covered with this page of resources. 

Finally, Ed Yong has been tracking gender imbalance in his published stories and since November 2015, he has also tracked the number of people of color in his stories. According to Ed, that "figure currently stands at 26 percent for the last year, ranging between 15 and 47 percent from month to month." He is working on how to make that figure higher and also ways to include more voices from LGBTQ, disabled, or immigrant communities. He is utilizing our "Request a Woman Scientist" platform along with others. Want to help get more women of color, LGBTQ, disabled, and other underrepresented voices into the public sphere? Sign up to be a resource.  

 

500 Women Scientists is on its way to becoming a powerful organization representing the voices of tens of thousands of women scientists all over the globe. With your gift we can pay for the vital infrastructure we need. Plus, your donations help keep 500WS resources free and open, one less barrier to women in science.