Women's issues

This section is dedicated to gender related issues. Some of these articles can be controversial. The views expressed in this section are not necessarily those of AWIS, the Palo Alto Chapter, its board or its members. They are meant to provide interesting information and points of discussion. Browse, ponder, and enjoy!

Safety Tips

Breast Cancer Statistics (10/10/99)
Breast cancer strikes one woman in the US every 12 minutes. This year it is estimated that 176,300 Americans will be diagnosed with breast cancer, and 43,000 will die.

AWIS members now have free access to Sciences Next Wave, the new subscription-only website on careers in science and technology. This is a benefit of AWIS membership and is only available from the members-only page. Normally, this would cost $20.00 a year To gain free access, go to the members-only page at www.awis.org, login with the password, and then click on Science's Next Wave.

Just one year ago, we gathered at the Washington Convention Center for AXXS '99: Achieving XXcellence in Science. One of the many wonderful recommendations resulting from that meeting was the development of a web site that would serve as a primary resource for women in biomedical careers. The AXXS Planning Committee is pleased to announce that the AXXS web site is officially launched. The site contains the AXXS '99 report, the AXXS 2000 report, pictures from the AXXS '99 meeting, articles about follow up from the AXXS meetings, resources, and related links. The URL for the AXXS site is http://www4.od.nih.gov/axxs

Book Reviews|

50/50 By 2010:A Consortium to Realize Female Potential in Science and Engineering (5/7/01)

Duke Engineering Professor Calls For Use Of Title IX To Increase Number Of Women Engineers (8/4/03)

WASHINGTON - Professor April Brown, chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, urged a Senate committee Thursday to apply Title IX, the federal gender anti-discrimination law usually used in athletics, to encourage more women to become engineers and scientists.

"The resulting pool of scientists and engineers will be larger and more diverse, which means we as a nation will be better prepared for the technological challenges our future will bring," Brown said in testimony prepared for the Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space.

Brown said the number of women faculty members in science and engineering must be increased to boost the number of women engineers and scientists in the work force. Role models, she added, show young women that they, too, can become engineers and scientists. And she said women students seek out female faculty for advice and research guidance.

"Many women are lost along the way if they cannot identify and relate to a teacher for guidance toward a successful career," Brown said. Yet she said less than 10 percent of engineering faculty members are women and, in her field of electrical and computer engineering, which is the most rapidly growing engineering discipline, only 7 percent of the faculty are women.

Brown, who joined the Pratt School this year, holds a bachelor's degree from North Carolina State University and a master's and doctorate from Cornell University. Before moving to Duke, she was Joseph M. Pettit Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and executive assistant to the president at Georgia Tech.

Brown was invited to testify by subcommittee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., about how Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 might be applied to increase the number of women engineers and scientists. She said that although Title IX requires colleges and universities that receive federal funding to provide equitable athletic opportunities for all students, regardless of sex, it covers all educational programs receiving federal assistance.

"During the past 30 years, Title IX has created tremendous changes in athletics," Brown said in her prepared testimony. "Now is the time to use its power for engineering and sciences, with the hope that the results will be as dramatic.

"Universities must comply with Title IX to receive federal funding. The government can and should do more to ensure compliance in the specific area of educational opportunities for women in science and engineering.

"First, since graduate programs across the nation are the primary training ground for the professoriate of the future, universities could be required under Title IX to create more institutional graduate support (scholarships) for women graduate students. Successful recruiting and retention of women in graduate school creates the new faculty members we need to attract more women undergraduates to science and engineering.

"Second, engineering programs can and should do more to ensure that their female faculty members -- and students -- have an equitable share of the resources provided by the institution. Title IX can be used to ensure that both financial aid and research support are equitably distributed among graduate students.

"Third, university leaders must be accountable for the work environment they steward. They can be held accountable under Title IX's provision of continuous improvement of the environment for women, and there are many approaches for doing that for both students and faculty members." For faculty, she said these include better work-family policies, including extending the period for faculty members to receive tenure, an important factor for women desiring to have children. "For students," she said, "these include supporting mentoring opportunities, such as Women in Engineering programs.

"Federal funding is critical to science and engineering, and we must ensure that women principal investigators are well represented in funding agencies' research and education portfolios."

Brown said she was drawn to engineering because her father was an engineer. She said she is the mother of two boys "that I hope will someday consider becoming engineers. She said she believes the changes she advocates "will benefit them as well as their female friends."

A Call for Help: Medical Books, Journals, and Supplies Needed in Afghanistan (4/2/02)

from Medscape Nurses

Susan B. Yox, RN, EdD

Will you help provide medical facilities in Afghanistan with needed medical books, journals, and supplies? We believe that Medscape readers will offer assistance.

The Public Health Team of the Coalition Joint Civil Military Operations Task Force, headed by Lt. Col. James Gardon, an Army Reserve Officer (Army Nurse Corps) from San Antonio, Texas, is assisting in rebuilding the healthcare system for the people of Afghanistan. They need books, journals, and medical equipment. Here is how you can help the most:

Donate medical, dental, nursing, veterinary, and biomedical repair books and journals, published any time within the last 10 years.
Send books and journals that are basic in focus. Subspecialty publications cannot be used at this time, as the healthcare system in Afghanistan does not have resources such as invasive cardiology or specialized radiology.
Books and journals published in English are welcome, as many healthcare professionals know English. Others are willing to translate materials into Dari and Pashto.
Medical supplies, from personal to institutional, are also needed. For example, Lt. Col. Gardon's recent assessment of a 200-bed hospital in Kabul indicated that there were 2 manual blood pressure cuffs and 6 stethoscopes for the whole hospital! Laboratories, radiology departments, and pharmacies are woefully lacking in even basic supplies as well.

Will you help? Please send donations to Lt. Col. James Gardon at the APO address below. (Donors must pay postage.) All donations will be equitably distributed and donors will be acknowledged to recipients.

We plan to publish follow-up reports on Medscape to let readers know the success of this effort.

Please send donations to:

Afghanistan
Operation Enduring Freedom
Public Health Team
c/o James Gardon
C/JCMOTF-K
APO AE 09356

Newsweek Magazine is conducting a poll re. Roe v. Wade: should it be repealed? (1/02)
PLEASE take a few moments to cast YOUR vote on the subject. Go to the linked site below.
(The poll is in the left panel just a little way down the page.) The "on the spot" results of this are very hopeful.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/692121.asp

The world community approaches a pivotal moment of opportunity in the restructuring of the government in Afghanistan, after the imminent defeat of the Taliban. There is now much talk of building a multi-ethnic coalition that will be representative of all parts of the country. However, I have heard no mention of including WOMEN in that group. The participation of women at a leadership level is absolutely vital if there is to be any real hope of building true democracy and safeguarding human rights in Afghanistan for the future.

I call upon you, through your organizations, your letters and contacts to politicians, and your personal actions, to demand the substantive participation of women leaders in the post-Taliban coalition government. Women MUST play a key role in determining the future direction of the country.

Women have been the most abused segment of Afghan society under the Taliban. Now they must be brought out of the darkness of their despair and be valued for the wisdom, humanity and balance they will bring to a new government. The participation of women in the coalition leadership group is absolutely vital to the success of any new administration. The RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) has long resisted the Taliban and fought for human rights for Afghan women and girls. Many of them have the qualifications, education, leadership skills and commitment to human rights that will be needed in the new government. Our government must insist that Afghan women are included in any leadership coalition that will shape Afghanistan's future.

Permission to publish, duplicate and pass on this message in any form is hereby granted and encouraged.

WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) Jun 21 - Despite efforts by President Bush and some Republicans to end a requirement that health plans serving federal employees cover prescription contraceptives, a strong majority of the public favors such laws, according to the results of a nationwide poll released on Thursday.

A survey of 853 registered voters, conducted by the Global Strategy Group for the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL), found that 86% of those polled support access by women to contraception, and 77% favored laws requiring health insurance plans to pay for those contraceptives. The telephone poll was conducted between March 29 and April 3 of this year and had a margin of error of +/- 4.2%.

"On this issue, President Bush is in the minority of his own party," NARAL President Kate Michelman said. "His position is far outside the mainstream of American values. Certainly conservative, hardly compassionate."

Bush's budget, sent to Congress in April, proposed to drop the 3-year requirement for federal worker health plans to pay for contraceptives. A bipartisan group of House members and Senators has introduced separate legislation that would extend the requirement to all private health insurers that cover other prescription drugs.

Some abortion opponents say that some forms of contraception, including birth control pills and intrauterine devices, which work by preventing implantation of a fertilized egg, are the equivalent of abortion.

But backers of coverage say that the tide is turning their way. "Contraceptive coverage laws have been passed in 14 states," said Rep. Nita Lowey, D-NY. "The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that not covering contraceptives is sex discrimination. And most recently [last week] a federal court ruled that Bartell's a large drug store chain, left a 'gaping hole' in healthcare coverage for its female employees by excluding contraception."

The House is expected to vote on whether to keep the federal worker coverage requirement this summer.

The Association for Women in Science is currently involved in the Women's Appointments Project and would like to ask for your help. The Women's Appointments Project aims to increase the number of women appointed to key positions throughout the new presidential administration. AWIS is participating in the Science, Technology, Transportation, Aviation, Maritime, NASA, NSF committee, and we are currently requesting resumes for qualified women candidates for positions in these areas. In addition, the Project would appreciate applications for other positions not under this committee. The application form provides an address for the Project, but we would also appreciate if you would send the information to us, either by email to Megan Pratt, pratt@awis.org or by fax, Attn: Women's Appointments, 202-326-8960.
More information on the Project is available at http://www.appointwomen.com.

To check the voting records of the candidates, visit the following websites comparing the candidates by statements and voting records:
1. Project Vote Smart---http://www.vote-smart.org/ comprehensive national and state voting information, biographies of candidates, and their voting records/issue positions, as well as voter registration information.

2. iVillage.com - http://www.ivillage.com/election/ voting records and statements of the Presidential candidates - compared side-by-side

3. Congressional Universe--- http://web.lexis-nexis.com/congcomp includes current members' biographies, financial information, voting records, and texts of bills they sponsored.

WILS Postdoc Peer Group (10/10/99)
We are a WILS postdoc peer group which formed this past spring. Three women from our group have since gotten jobs and moved out of the Bay Area and we are looking for other women postdocs to join our group.
We meet monthly on campus and discuss issues such as:
1) present goals as a postdoc here at UCSF
2) future career goals in academia and industry (and finding resources and tactics to meet these goals)
3) finding time for outside interests/family
4) being a woman in science
5) struggles and accomplishments each of us is encountering and solving in our present lives ....etc!

The goal of the group is to provide a confidential and supportive environment where we each offer different viewpoints, exchange of information, eat dinner and have fun!
If you are interested, please let us know. Contact Tania Vu at taniavu@ITSA.UCSF.EDU.

Women in science, why so few?
Governments, industry and research funders around the world want to increase the numbers of women in science. The relatively recent recognition of the economic value of not squandering half of our scientific potential is the modern face of a grass roots campaign many decades old.
Despite many years of increased representation of women amongst science graduates, this has, remarkably, failed to translate into their presence at senior levels within academia, science institutions and science policy-making bodies. In the year 1999 many widely respected scientific institutions around the world find that the percentage of their female staff remains, stubbornly, in single figures.
With growing evidence of both real and unconscious discrimination against female researchers, and against a backdrop of increasing political and even legal activity, Nature is launching a web debate on the issue on the 9th of September.
The debate is led by six senior international figures within the arena of women in science. Questions raised by contributors in the first weeks of the debate are: Why are there so few? Is discrimination real or imagined? How important is the conflict between family and a research career? Are women-only positions the answer?
We invite you to participate in, and respond to, this debate. You can respond to the debate or request further information by emailing: debates@nature.com. You may also contact us at the address below.
In addition to the launch of this debate we will be releasing a special web feature bringing together our reports and articles on the subject of women in science from the past 2 years onto an open access site.

More about Nature debates can be found at: http://helix.nature.com/debates/about_debates.html
Women in science - the Nature web debate - September 9th 1999

Week 1: Women - why so few in science? Nancy J Lane, University of Cambridge, UK (debate moderator).
Moving on from discrimination at MIT. Mary-Lou Pardue, Nancy Hopkins, Mary C Potter & Sylvia Ceyer - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.
The challenge "Women and Science" in Europe. Nicole Dewandre, European Commission - DGXII, Brussells.
Equal opportunities - necessary for quality in research. Sybille Krummacher, Research Centre J�lich, Germany.

Week 2: New strategies of the German Federal Government. Helga Ebeling, Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Bonn, Germany
Third World perspectives. Lydia P Makhubu, vice-chancellor, University of Swaziland, president of the Third World Organization for Women in Science.

From the debate.... 'Each generation of young women, including those who are currently senior faculty, began by believing that gender discrimination was "solved" in the previous generation and would not touch them. Gradually however, their eyes were opened to the realization that the playing field is not level after all, and that they had paid a high price both personally and professionally as a result.' Pardue et al.
"At the end of the 20th century women remain a minority in the scientific disciplines. We have waited for women to trickle up through the system for at least a decade and we seem to be no closer to equality." Lane
'The promotion of women in science is of crucial importance for European society as a whole. By "letting women in", the scientific system can only improve and better respond to societal needs.' Dewandre
'There are now not enough women applicants for professorships or institute director positions, even though enough of them were in the starting positions twenty years ago.' Krummacher
About the contributors: Nancy Lane is a cell biologist at the University of Cambridge, and Director of the University's new Initiative for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology
Mary-Lou Pardue and colleagues are all senior scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Nicole Dewandre is the head of the 'Women in Science' sector of DGX11 within the European Commission.
Lydia Makubu is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Swaziland and the president of the Third World Organization for Women in Science.
Sybile Krummacher is a scientist at the Research Centre J�lich
Helga Ebeling is head of Women in Education and Research at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany.

WITI Women
WITI Women is a new feature on the WITI Web site (http://www.witi.com) that will highlight the thoughts, ideas, and background of successful and dynamic women who are influencing the future of technology and are committed to the advancement of women in the industry. Our first WITI Woman is Susan Parks, Vice President and General Manager of Public Services/Retail Markets for US West. Go to the WITI Web site to read about Susan, nominate yourself or someone you know to be a WITI Woman and get all your news, stock information and feature stories. http://www.witi.com/center/witimuseum/witiwomen/sparks/
Get a free home page! While you're on the WITI site, sign-up for a free home page in the WITI Community Resource Directory. You can post news, information, photos, files, events and more for yourself or your organization. The nomination form is at: http://www.witi.com/connections/nominateanorgan.shtml