Updates & News
Today, March 31, is trans visibility day - a day to celebrate transgender people and raise awareness of discrimination faced by transgender people worldwide. Visibility is not just about seeing trans people as individuals. Visibility is about learning the history of the trans rights movement and how trans right intersect with other movements for equality. Visibility is about showing up and working to dismantle the many systems of oppressions trans people face in society.
Over the last few weeks, we at 500 Women Scientists have been closely monitoring news and developments around the COVID-19 pandemic. We recognize that many of our members and their communities have been growing concerned and anxious and are looking for positive ways to channel their energy. We’ve put together a list of things you can do in the coming weeks to follow expert guidance, share expertise of your own, and serve your communities.
The Climate Movement is Growing (Post by Jewel Tomasula)
Led by young people across the world, climate activism reached an all time high on Friday September 20th with the global #ClimateStrike. The movement will keep growing.
This week, we are continuing to act on climate across the globe. Protests, marches, strikes, peaceful civil disobedience, and other organized actions are important tactics for changing what is politically possible and creating, then sustaining, pressure to enact bold climate policies and solutions.
We hope you to engage in climate activism this week, in whatever way empowers you and makes you feel courageous.
Here are some ways that women in STEM can help keep the momentum going in the climate movement:
Anyone can volunteer to organize an action on Earth Day 2020
Private industry workers can hold companies accountable for climate impacts, like Amazon Employees for Climate Justice
Those of us in academic institutions should hold universities accountable for fossil fuel investments.
Canadian Elections 2019
September 17 (post by Ashley Shaw and Heather Slinn)
Canadian Federal Elections 2019 are on October 21st! For the next five weeks, parties will be discussing their platforms to potential voters in the hopes of winning the election. Media focus has been primarily based upon the power struggle between the Conservatives and the Liberals, headed by Andrew Scheer and Justin Trudeau, respectively. However, the New Democratic Party (NDP) lead by Jagmeet Singh and the Green Party lead by Elizabeth May, have gained significant traction in the dominant narrative. At this point in the race, voters have many resources to be informed of the development of policies and decisions that may heavily impact their lives.
If you are eligible to vote, there are a few key steps that you can take to prepare for the 2019 elections:
Register to vote: https://www.elections.ca/content2.aspx?section=reg&document=index&lang=e
Read through the initial platforms and policies provided by each party:
Check out this vote compass provided by the CBC to determine which party your values align with: https://votecompass.cbc.ca/canada/
Follow the debates on television to witness what is being discussed and what commitments are being made
Attend town hall meetings to speak with representatives and take part in politically charged discussions
If you will be outside the country during the election, make sure to either pre-vote: https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=vote&document=index&lang=e#advance or send vote by mail https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/living-abroad/elections-faq.
Encourage your friends, colleagues, family to vote.
Sign petitions and contribute to one of the campaigns around this election organized by LeadNow (https://www.leadnow.ca/), The Council of Canadians (https://canadians.org/), David Suzuki Foundation (https://davidsuzuki.org/) and Fair Vote Canada (https://www.fairvote.ca/). There are many more non-profit and non-governmental organizations that you can get involved with.
Need more information about voting in the Canadian elections? Check out this CBC article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-voter-guide-2019-federal-election-1.5260336
As we come closer to the election near the end of October, we will learn more about what decisions each party plans to implement should they win. While the election itself is very important, it is also imperative to practice self-care when delving into the world of politics. The decisions each party plans to make do have significant impacts on our population. However, it is easy to get caught up in the seemingly never-ending source of issues our society has grown to face including climate change, gender inequality, and the struggle towards effective reconciliation with Indigenous communities.
Stay tuned for additional posts regarding the Canadian Elections in the coming weeks.
Photo by Silvestri Matteo on Unsplash
Today’s Take Action Tuesday post is brought to you by Jenna Jablonski, member of the DC Pod of 500 Women Scientists and founder of Sister.
How does your STEM identity connect with your political identity?
For National Voter Registration Day in September, Sister is partnering with Science Rising to publish a series of articles showing how individuals in STEM can be political — and that our STEM work can even shape our advocacy work.
We want to share your perspective. How does your STEM identity connect with your political identity (your advocacy work, issues you care about, etc.)? How does this tie in with your personal identity and/or journey in STEM?
If you’re interested in writing, send a pitch by this Friday (8/16) to hello@sisterstem.org. Pitches can be short descriptions of what you plan to write about, or a sample/excerpt from the proposed article. Full articles (about 700-1,000 words) will be due at the end of August. Sister happily provides editorial support along the way.
You can also spread the word by retweeting this tweet or sending anyone who may be interested to sisterstem.org/write.
Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash
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.
“No one is illegal on stolen land.”
June is #ImmigrantHeritageMonth in the US, a time to remember and celebrate our family immigration stories. But it’s not enough to recognize the contributions immigrants have made and continue to make in the US and abroad. It’s not enough to #CelebrateImmigrants.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Last week the Court of Arbitration for Sport decided to prevent Caster Semenya (NYT) and other women from competing in world sport competitions because of their innate high testosterone levels may constitute an unfair advantage. This is not only unfair (lets face it, no one prevented Michael Phelps from competing) but also an opportunity to educate ourselves that narrow definitions of womanhood are misogynistic, racist, transphobic and are NOT based in science. We must:
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