#WomenScienceDay (Update x 2)
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It’s the International Day of Women & Girls in Science.
Science and gender equality are both vital for the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Over the past 15 years, the global community has made a lot of effort in inspiring and engaging women and girls in science. Unfortunately, women and girls continued to be excluded from participating fully in science. According to a study conducted in 14 countries, the probability for female students of graduating with a Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree and Doctor’s degree in science-related field are 18%, 8% and 2% respectively, while the percentages of male students are 37%, 18% and 6%.
That makes it a perfect day to read a herpetologist’s response to a Blightfart sharticle about women and science. Or you can just squee at the pictures of the cute snakes and turtles and so on.
So in case you don’t have time to read for yourself, I’ll summarize. Men sometimes drop out of science and math mid-career, but only, like, 48% of them. Women hit the road running WAY more often. Like, 52%. So it makes perfect sense to Milo the cat AND to me that women should only get maybe 10% of the spots in STEM programs. Because 52-48=10 women who stick around, and those girls are mostly dried up old maids who never had a date in high school.
Women don’t like science and math because people are mean, and math is hard, and we’d rather be curling our hair and painting our nails and biting each other in the back and stuff like that. I’m so, so lucky that I fell into herpetology as a career because that’s, like, not real science at all. Herpetology is basically Home Economics.
Like, we work with these totally endangered species, but incubating the eggs is really just baking.
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And sometimes we have to feed the Komodo Dragon, but that’s mostly like walking the dog. Or watching Game of Thrones.
Squeeing at the Komodo Dragon is not recommended.
Update II – Here she discusses caring for herps, including the need to create an interesting environment.
Update I – Yale University reversed its decision on renaming Calhoun College today. It will be renamed after computer science pioneer, rear admiral and Vassar alum Grace Murray Hopper.
Grace Brewster Murray was born in New York City in 1906. She entered Vassar in 1924, concentrating in physics and mathematics.
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Hopper also took many courses outside her concentrations, in economics, public finance, botany, physiology, geology and electronics. She graduated from Vassar in 1928 with honors in physics and math and went on to study mathematics at Yale on a Vassar fellowship.
