Live from the Inclusive Science Conference

Jun 17, 2008 09:31

It's day two of the Inclusive Science Conference. If today is anything like yesterday was, it should be amazing.

My favorite speaker yesterday was Marlene Zuk, from the University of California at Riverside. (I'm blogging from my phone and can't easily add hyperlinks, so you'll have to google people yourself.) She talked about who we use for models in science - fruitflies, rats, etc , why we use them, and then why we always males as model systems. Are males a good and fair system, or not? Not only was Marlene's speech interesting, but she herself was funny, articulate, and friendly. (I got to go along when she got picked up at the airport on Sunday, and then talk with her later that evening.)

Other speakers have talked about feminist theory, boundaries, pedagogies, and including and retaining females in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields.

My job here is to run the technology stuff - powerpoints, laptops, projectors - so yesterday I sat in on the K-12 pedagogy presentations. I initially thought they would be boring, but was quite wrong. Having volunteered in a high school science classroom at the local charter high school for the Deaf and considered teaching in that type of environment, I'm familiar with some pedagogy stuff. I'm also hoping to do some work with schoolchildren in grad school, so I enjoyed picking up ideas of how and what to teach.

However, as fascinating as it has been listening to and learning from everyone, I'm finding it hard to relate to a few concepts. Mainly, I've never felt discouraged from being a scientist or discriminated against in science because I'm female. There are fewer females in STEM fields, and much discussion has centered on keeping girls interested in science and retaining them in science fields. Obviously, this is important, but having never experienced these sorts of things, I'm having trouble fully understanding.

I made through elementary and middle school with few problems, and was placed in the advanced science track in 9th grade due to test scores. My advanced classes were usually split fairly equally between boys and girls, and no one ever told me girls couldn't do science as well as boys. For most of my undergrad years I attended a women's college, so females in science were a given. Even in my semester at a coed school, I never felt any discouragment. If anything, it was the opposite, thanks for my successful marine biology professor. Now, as I begin my graduate career at a large coed state school, I still haven't felt any animosity. There were many female students at the department's Welcome Weekend when I interviewed there, my advisor is male, but quite liberal and open-minded, and the department is full of strong, successful, female scientists.

So, has some combination of my background, schools, and location prevented me from being discouraged from science? Are there areas where this happens less? Is this a generational thing, where we are slowly becoming a more equal society, but are just waiting for some of the older, more conservative generation to retire? Or some combination of all of these? There are still almost two days left in the conference, so maybe some of my questions will be answered.

science, st. kate's, feminism, equality, conference, diversity, biology

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