Resource Guide for Websites for Women in STEM (with an emphasis on Astronomy)

As someone who has spoken up for women within our field, people tend to come to me for advice from time to time.  One question that I have repeatedly received is “do you know of one great STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) resource for women in our field or young women looking to enter this profession?”  And every time I say "no, I know of way more than one, " then Google every website I can think of that I have found useful previously.  The person usually leaves with their head swimming full of websites, and likely forgets most of what I said within minutes (but now knows I have a strange relationship with my iPhone and Google).  So I’m going to use my blog time this month to include the many sites that I have found useful, add some others that have been suggested to me along the way, and hopefully readers will take the opportunity to chime in on the comments section of this blog to add their own useful sites.  I’ll focus on websites targeting issues for women already in the STEM field, but will highlight one site that points out several resources for younger women/girls looking to enter in to the field. So the next time someone asks this question, this blog can be easily pointed to as a starting point.

May (be a) Post

May has proven to be a very busy month for me, hence the lack of posting. It also isn't helped by the fact that I'm suffering a combination of writer's block and overthinking of topics to post on.

One topic I that's been tumbling about in my mind is the fact that May is Asian-Pacific American History Month, which ought to be important to me personally as an Asian American. I also understand that Asian Americans are under-represented in some fields of science and engineering, notably Astronomy. But talking about this for real would involve me actually looking up statistics and trying to determine how foreign nationals appear in the picture and expounding on the model minority myth and our invisibility in any discussions of race in this country and addressing issues that hard to talk about. Not that talking about Women in Astronomy is necessarily always easy, but I've had practice there.

Instead, I'll point you to some links that I've found particularly interesting lately.

A terrific report by and about women in astrobiology and planetary sciences from AbSciCon

Also, Susan Neibur, editor of the above blog, was recently diagnosed with a recurrence of inflammatory breast cancer, so she could use your support

Dr. Isis explains one of the reasons why I've been suffering from writer's block"

Female Science Professor writes about something that sounds very much like the Annie Jump Cannon Award. Food for thought.

Link list

Before I disappear for the Thanksgiving break, I thought I'd clear out my list of links I've been collecting:

How Not to Write a Recommendation Letter, from Cosmic Variance (This comes a bit late in job season, I know, but better late than never, right?)

MIT economists find a new reason to think that environment, not innate ability, determines how well girls do in math class

NSF Earth Science Change in Policy Regarding Postdocs and Parental Leave (from Isis)

Staying Competitive: Patching America's Leaky Pipeline in the Sciences

Title IX Includes Maternal Discrimination (Chronicle of Higher Education)


Enjoy your Thanksgiving!