Today and every day, support trans rights!

Today and every day, support trans rights!

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.

Join team WomenInStem, donate computer processing time!

Today’s Take Action post comes from Rachel Ignotofsky

As the world is responding to the COVID-19 virus, its easy to feel anxious, overwhelmed, and helpless. But there are lots of ways we can still engage with and help speed up a COVID-19 treatment and vaccine.

You can donate your computer processing power and time using a program called folding@home to simulate a viral spread and help find a vaccine. Together, your computer will be networked with lots of other computers to create super computers for researchers. This is especially useful if you have a computer with a high powered graphics card (like what you might get for editing or gaming) but any PC or Mac will help!

Join the team WomenInScience (team# 241903) and donate your computing power in 5 easy steps:

  1. Go to foldingathome.org

  2. Click on “start folding” and download folding@home software

  3. Follow instructions to install and run software

  4. Join team WomenInScience 241903

  5. Sit back and let your computer do the work

Read more about Folding@Home’s work on COVID-19 here.

Hope Is Not a Strategy: What we can do in the wake of COVID-19

Hope Is Not a Strategy: What we can do in the wake of COVID-19

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.

Take Action

2020 is shaping up to be a huge year for voter turnout in the United States. But voter registration and turnout remains low for 18-25 year olds while undergraduate STEM majors are even less likely to vote than many of their peers. 

The good news is that we can help. 

In 2018, many 500 Women Scientists pods and members were active in getting out the vote in their communities. We’re excited to build on that this year by sharing what we’ve learned and identifying ways we can make the most of our time and energy between now and November.

Please check out our resource guide for registering and mobilizing voters. And join us on the 500WS Pods Slack under #2020 to share what you’re doing!

The guide covers some ideas for getting started, resources for voter registration and mobilization, and links to groups that are doing a ton of work, including through powerful official channels on campus, to get out the vote. We’ve also covered some basics dos and don’ts for voter registration activities conducted through non-profit groups like 500WS.

And one final note: the general election might be months away, but now’s a great time to get started with voter registration. Amid impeachment and the U.S. presidential primary, people are paying a ton of attention to what’s happening in U.S politics. And record-breaking turnout in 2018 — the highest we’ve seen since women won the right to vote in the United States — might just be the beginning!

Stay tuned for more as we update this guide and as other science groups kick into gear.

Take the Science Rising Challenge: The Union of Concerned Scientists, SACNAS, and other Science Rising partners have launched their own voter registration campaign, and you can be part of it! Be sure to check out their messaging toolkit, and tag them alongside @500WS for your campaigns and tweets!

Photo by Fred Moon on Unsplash

Weekly Wrap-Up

Welcome to 2020 folks! We hope you were able to take some time to yourselves, to get a bit of rest before the onslaught that has already proved to be 2020.

We stand in solidarity with everyone seeking and working towards peace. 500 Women Scientists is deeply committed to a peaceful process that values every human life and every culture. Demilitarization and decarbonization are intrinsically linked and we will continue to use our platform to amplify voices that advocate for peace, environmental and climate justice, and equitable solutions to our planet’s most pressing problems.

Our plans for 2020

  • Women’s March 2020 - see you there!

  • 500 Women Scientists brand refresh coming your way in January (thank you Teal Media!!!)

  • Relaunching the new and improved Request a Woman in STEMM platform next week!

  • Launching the new Reproductive Justice project for 500 Women Scientists pods

  • Meeting the first Fellowship for the Future cohort and kicking off the 2-yr fellowship

  • Sharing guidance around the 2020 US elections

  • Growing our SciMom Journeys initiative

  • Organizing Wikipedia editing events and conference meet-ups all over the world

WHAT WE LIKE

READING CORNER

IN OUR EARBUDS

Don’t hesitate to send us your podcast and book suggestions

Photo by Crazy nana on Unsplash

Weekly Wrap-Up

This week brings another political low, another chink in the armor of democracy. In the words of Priyamvada Gopal

We face an entrenched reality now, here to stay for the foreseeable future. It's the reality that the anticolonialists of the world once faced: huge empires with vast weaponry at their command, literal & ideological, & the ignorant consent of swathes of their populaces.

How do we stand up against this tide of xenophobia, fear mongering, lack of accountability, dismissal of facts and objective truths? How do we push back? Its easy to feel despair and grief, but we cannot give up and we cannot turn away from what is in front of us. The road to our collective freedom is long and arduous. But we must show up and take the first step and then another and then another. That’s how we move from despair to action and from action to change. As Priyamvada Gopal said, the odds were always against us. Lets continue the hard work anyway.

WHAT WE’VE DONE

  • We announced the inaugural Fellowship for the Future cohort ✨✨✨

500WS meet-up at AGU. Photo credit Dany Waller

500WS meet-up at AGU. Photo credit Dany Waller

WHAT WE LIKE

READING CORNER

IN OUR EARBUDS

Don’t hesitate to send us your podcast and book suggestions

Photo by Ryan Loughlin on Unsplash

Take Action Tuesday


This week’s Take Action Tuesday is on Socially Responsible Investing , brought to us by Nicole M. Baran of the Atlanta Pod.

What does it mean to invest in the future? When we think about how to save for retirement or choosing where to bank, we often don’t consider whether the money we’re setting aside is funding companies that reflect our values. And yet if you have a standard employer-sponsored retirement account, for example, you are almost certainly invested in the fossil fuel industry.

Socially Responsible Investing (SRI), also known as sustainable, socially conscious, "green" or ethical investing, is an investment strategy which seeks to consider both financial return as well as social and environmental good. Another term that you may also encounter is ESG, or the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into investment. SRI/ESG strategies can be based on a number of themes. You may choose to make investment decisions based on any number of different considerations, including environmental stewardship, labor practices, diversity in hiring or in leadership, societal impacts of the products, and human rights/ethical practices of the companies. These considerations, of course, need to be weighed against the potential differences in financial return, costs, taxes, and level of active management required for the individual investor.

 The good news is that the SRI sector is booming and there are more options than ever before. We may have limited options as individuals, but collectively we can create demand and signal to the financial industry the need to develop more, better, and higher return SRI options. It also forces bad actors to reconsider their corporate strategies. In that spirit, here are just some ways we can each put our money where our mouth is!

Please note: This should NOT be seen as financial advice! These are just some ideas to consider as you think about you/your family’s financial goals and needs.

1.     Look into your investment & retirement options. SRI has been slow to penetrate the employer-sponsored retirement plan market, so options here are somewhat limited. Fortunately, there are some actions you can take right away.

a.     If your employer offers a “self-directed” brokerage window option for your 401(k)/403(b), you may be able to invest some proportion of your funds to socially responsible mutual funds or ETFs within your current employer-sponsored retirement plan. If your plan doesn’t give you the flexibility to invest in SRI funds, you may also be able to rollover some of your funds (or funds from a previous employer) into a tax-deferred individual retirement account (IRA) where you can choose SRI options that match your values and financial goals.

b.     Consider using SRI brokerage accounts or SRI apps which give you more flexibility to be able withdraw funds at any time—for example, if you’re saving for a down payment on a house. These accounts come with higher fees and taxes on your earnings, but they offer some of the most stringent SRI criteria and the most flexibility for you to strategically focus on investing in companies that match your values.

c.     Talk to a financial advisor and ask about your options! Even just having a conversation and asking questions can itself help to demonstrate the demand for companies to create more and better socially-responsible investment products and for employers to make those plans available to employees. Similarly, if your employer doesn’t have any SRI options for the 401(k)/403(b) employer-matched retirement plan, ask for one!

2.     Bank locally. The benefits of working with a local bank or credit union are many. But, it importantly, it means that the money in your account is ultimately available to be invested in your local community, funding the mortgages and small business loans of your neighbors. You can also consider banking with minority- or black-owned banks, which provide vital resources to populations that are often underserved at other financial institutions.

 3.     Get involved in divestment efforts at your university or institution. The divestment movement has been pushing for institutions, including universities, to divest from assets connected to companies involved in the extraction of fossil fuels. Do you know whether your employer/university has committed to divestment. Support the efforts (which are often student-led) and leverage your power to ensure that your institution follows through.

By investing our money in companies that share our values, we can truly plan for the future that we want to live in.

Photo by Fabian Blank on Unsplash

Weekly Wrap-Up

There is no glory in the grind that literally grinds you down to dust

- Eve Ewing


WHAT WE’VE DONE

WHAT WE LIKE

IN OUR EARBUDS

Don’t hesitate to send us your podcast and book suggestions

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Image from iOS.jpg

ENJOY THE WEEKEND


Weekly Wrap-Up

Sorry folks - we were so busy doing all the things that we forgot to post a weekly wrap-up last week, so we are posting it on a Monday in the hopes that it helps launch another great week.

WHAT WE’VE DONE

WHAT WE LIKE

  • Follow Friday: @KeoluFox, @oiwi_scholar, @cricketcrocker, @KimTallBea, @NativeApprops, @i_iwakeli_i, @jessbhdz

  • Indigenous women on the rise

  • Long history of Indigenous resistance to the systematic destruction of homeland, culture and identity perpetrated by colonialist governments across the globe

  • Recognizing the interlinked issues of environmental and climate justice and the root cause of colonialism

  • Love is Wise

  • Cancel culture, when people in power are rightfully criticized their problematic actions

READING CORNER

IN OUR EARBUDS - podcasts made by Indigenous creators (check out this list for more ideas)

Don’t hesitate to send us your podcast and book suggestions

Photo by Jessica Fadel on Unsplash

Take Action Tuesday

As #NativeAmericanHistoryMonth comes to a close, we ask that our 500 Women Scientists community take time this week to a) honor the contributions of Native scientists, b) acknowledge how history—including the history of science—has worked to erase and delegitimize Native identity, and importantly, c) help redress those wrongs by holding individuals and academic institutions accountable for centering Native narratives. To these ends:

1.     Recognize that the dominant narrative of Thanksgiving often elides the impacts that settlers have had and continue to have on Native communities. Thanksgiving is not a celebration for everyone. The United American Indians of New England describes Thanksgiving as: 

“a reminder of the genocide of millions of Native people, the theft of Native lands, and the relentless assault on Native culture. Participants in National Day of Mourning honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive today. It is a day of remembrance and spiritual connection as well as a protest of the racism and oppression which Native Americans continue to experience.”

This Take Action Tuesday, we encourage you to seek out Native perspectives on Thanksgiving, such as by reading the posts below:

2. Follow, subscribe, and financially support the work of Native scholars, journalists, business owners, and organizations who work to center indigenous communities, their cultures, and the issues they face. These include:

3. Ask your institution to hold itself accountable. As starting places for this work:

Photo by Sime Basioli on Unsplash

Weekly Wrap-Up

Happy Friday everyone.

In the northern hemisphere, the days are getting shorter. And to be honest, patience for our failing (democratic, scientific, societal) institutions are getting shorter and shorter too. The people of Hong Kong are out in the streets, using their voices to fight for their autonomy and freedoms. Protesters in Chile are in the streets, protesting income inequality and violent government tactics to shut down protests. We are inspired by their and others’ collective actions and by their willingness to show up for what they believe in!

WHAT WE’VE DONE

WHAT WE LIKE

READING CORNER

IN OUR EARBUDS

Our mission is to serve society by making science open, inclusive, and accessible, and to transform society by fighting racism, patriarchy, and oppressive societal norms