Updates

Friday Wrap Up

Welcome to Climate Strike Friday!

“Lightening makes no sound until it strikes”

Martin Luther King Jr.

I hope many of you around the world have been able to get engaged with the #globalclimatestrike and found a way to take action in your communities, cities, states, countries.

WHAT WE’VE DONE

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WHAT WE LIKE

READING CORNER

IN OUR EARBUDS

Don’t hesitate to send us your podcast suggestions and summer reads.

Photo by Damon Lam on Unsplash

Weekly Wrap-Up

Another Friday, another week of chaos. Its hard to know where to start, which fire to put out when the whole world is aflame. So we must start with one thing, one action. Action begets action, so lets begin!

WHAT WE’VE DONE

WHAT WE LIKE

READING CORNER

IN OUR EARBUDS

Don’t hesitate to send us your podcast suggestions and summer reads.

Photo by Orlova Maria on Unsplash

Weekly Wrap-Up

This week’s post written by Jane Zelikova

I got to spend this week imagining a not too distant future of feminist leadership in the climate movement. Surrounded by people I deeply admire, I grappled with the limits of my own imagination - what does the world look like when we fully harness feminist solutions to our biggest problems? What does feminism look like when we elevate the leadership of people who have been pushed to the margins of these movements?

Even with endless Montana big sky over my head and fresh air in my lungs, I realized I have lost my ability to dream, a skill I haven’t had much use for lately, a muscle atrophied by daily tasks, putting out immediate fires, writing another peer reviewed paper, another grant, another job application. A permission to dream is a powerful and scary thing! What does a world look like when women define the metrics of success?  What does assumption of expertise look like when its not given by default to men? Who gets to have big ideas in our society when that default is not freely ceded to men?

This week, I am stretching my imagination, I am re-awakening my dream muscles to help envision and bring about a different world. Please join me! 

WHAT WE’VE DONE

WHAT WE LIKE

READING CORNER

IN OUR EARBUDS

Don’t hesitate to send us your podcast suggestions and summer reads.

Photo by Hunter Wiseley on Unsplash

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Take Action Tuesday

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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

Take Action Tuesday

Join the #SciMomJourney Team in celebrating Breastfeeding!

August is breastfeeding month, and August 1-7 is World Breastfeeding week. This year’s theme is “Empower Parents. Enable Breastfeeding.” Black Breastfeeding Week starts August 25th and the theme is “The World is Yours.” 

Social and institutional support is key to enabling breastfeeding for scientist moms. No matter who you are, you can help! Advocate for parent-friendly policies, plan for accommodations at events, ask a breastfeeding coworker how she’s doing. These actions matter! 

We welcome everyone to:

  • Celebrate World Breastfeeding week!

  • Sign the Pledge to empower parents and enable breastfeeding, now and for the future! You can create an event locally to support breastfeeding. 

  • Follow Black Breastfeeding Week on Twitter and Facebook for the latest updates and events.

  • Sign up for WABA’s (World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action) email list to find out about all their events that you can participate in during the month of August. 

  • Read our op-ed in Scientific American about how to improve scientist-moms’ breastfeeding experiences- Do Science, Pump, Repeat

  • Share your SciMomJourney Story. Our survey is on-going! We would love to crunch this data and share our thoughts. We will never share your name, institution or any other information without your permission.  

If you are in a 500WS Pod, you can this sign to show your support for Breastfeeding mothers.

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Creating New Perspectives

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Creating New Perspectives

This week on #MeetAScientist, get to know Dr. Ruth Schmidt, a microbial ecologist, postdoctoral fellow at Université du Québec, and member of the 500 Women Scientists Leadership Board. She chats about her experiences working in Egypt during Arab Spring, communicating science through art, and working on 500WS's partnership efforts. For more from her, follow Ruth on Twitter @RuthLSchmidt!

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Failure is okay

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Failure is okay

This week on #MeetAScientist, get to know Dr. Lexi Moore Crisp, a biologist and 500 Women Scientists leadership team member. Many of you may know Lexi as one of the international pod coordinators, working to connect our network of pods around the globe. She's also co-founder of the Philly pod and is working to transform how we think about mentorship within our community. In this interview, she chats about everything from badger burrowing to the need to feel comfortable with failure.

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Weekly Wrap-Up

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Weekly Wrap-Up

I've been thinking a lot about optimism over the last few weeks. To live in a better world, we have to be able to imagine it first. That requires optimism—heaps of it. So I've been coming to see optimism as a habit of mind—one that I have to practice at. Curating these weekly wrap-ups are part of that active practice. They're a list of what we've done, what we love, and what we have left to do.

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Weekly Wrap-Up

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Weekly Wrap-Up

This week is one in a number that has highlighted how high the stakes are for our future, which is why we're so excited about our newly launched campaign to Get Out the Vote. Regardless of whether you're based around the world, the message I took away from the webinar is the same: if we can mobilize around our values and build a collective story to inspire others to action, change will come.

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Weekly Wrap-Up

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Weekly Wrap-Up

Happy first international #LGBTstemday (one day late)! And Happy Independence Day (2 days late). The summer is here and while we would all rather be on a beach with a coconut based drink in our hand, there is resistance to do! We will be here all summer to help you plan. Use the summer to meet up with your pod or network of women at a conference, and keep us posted! Enjoy the weekend ;). 

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Understanding our responsibility

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Understanding our responsibility

This week on #MeetAScientist, learn about University of Washington Chemical Engineering professor Lilo Pozzo. Lilo's research group explores properties of nanomaterials with applications spanning from photovoltaic cells to protein engineering. Born in Argentina and raised in Puerto Rico, Dr. Pozzo recently spent time in Puerto Rico with her research group helping restore power to the island using microgrids and solar arrays.

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Uncertainty as a Starting Place

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Uncertainty as a Starting Place

This week on #MeetAScientist, get to know science communicator Laurel Allen, one of the co-organizers of the 500 Queer Scientists campaign! She chats about her path to science communication, the success of 500QS, which is now in its second week and has been featured in outlets like Mother Jones, and what we can all do to maximize their impact. 

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Coming Out of the Shadows

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Coming Out of the Shadows

Happy Pride Month! This week on #MeetAScientist, get to know Dr. Lauren Esposito, an arachnologist, educator, and co-founder of the campaign 500 Queer Scientists, which launched today! 500QS is a new visibility campaign for LGBTQ+ people and their allies working in STEMM and STEMM-supporting jobs. In this interview, Lauren chats about her work and the need raise awareness around issues facing LGBTQ+ members of the scientific community. You can follow 500QS and amplify their work on Twitter @500QueerSci and Instagram @500QueerScientists!

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.