The Atlantic: The Odds That a Panel Would ‘Randomly’ Be All Men Are Astronomical
This is a fabulous interview with mathematician Greg Martin, who has proven that it is a statistical impossibility that all male panels can occur in truly random selection.
There are many possible reasons why a STEM event might have vanishingly few women among its speakers. Outright sexism and misogyny are rare these days (I hope!), but it still happens. Much more common, I believe, is that all of us carry implicit biases—internal prejudices, difficult to detect in any individual instance, against the idea that women can excel in science and math. These biases have been shown to literally alter our perception of women in STEM fields, so that we evaluate them as being less accomplished as men with identical CVs. This (unintentionally) unfair evaluation of women by conference organizers, together with the psychological tendency to first call to mind stereotypical representatives of categories (for example, male mathematicians), lead them to come up with speaker lists consisting disproportionately of male speakers.
Unless we consciously try to observe the gender composition at conferences, the same biases cause us not to even notice that there are far too few women to be the result of a fair process; and so the injustice is perpetuated.
Bloomberg: California Shows How Paid-Leave Law Affects Businesses: Not Much
Shortish piece about how, in 2004, California implemented a paid 6 week leave program for anyone needing to care for a newborn or sick family member. Despite the wailing of the doomsayers, not only has California not suffered for this, their employment rate is 2% higher than the US average.
National polls this year showed support as high as 71 percent of Republicans and 88 percent of Democrats for policies that benefit workers including paid family leave, equal pay and affordable child care. Some small business owners say California’s law has helped them compete.
“I’m a small agency, so I don’t have the ability to give every benefit you might expect from a larger company,” said Adam Rochon, who co-owns Sequoia Employee Benefits and Insurance Solutions, a five-employee company that brokers benefit packages for companies near Fresno. “A program like this, where it doesn’t actually have an out-of-pocket cost, is great because it allows you to offer benefits you wouldn’t normally be able to.”
Fortune: You’re not alone, Paul Ryan. Work-life balance is a dad issue, too
Paul Ryan, a Republican Congressman, refused the position of Speaker of the House (roughly equivalent to our Speaker position) because he “cannot and will not give up family time”. It shouldn’t have incited such shock, but it did, as has other similar declarations by successful men.
Whether or not we want to brand these men as poster children for work-life balance, the level of attention given to their pronouncements proves one thing: Our society still thinks of work-life balance as a woman’s issue.
Yet that perception clearly lags behind the facts on the ground. As Fortune recently reported, half of MBA students—male and female—say they plan to prioritize their families over their careers. In that same study, 42% of male MBAs said they feared that keeping some balance in their lives would derail their career ambitions.
Bustle: Are Women As Career-Oriented As Men? Women Place Just As Much Importance On Their Careers, Study Shows
Short summary of a recent study of women’s focus on their career, which, as so many of these studies do, came back with a basic common sense answer.
Today’s edition of “suck it, sexism,” is brought to you by Ithaca College, where researchers recently analyzed whether women really are less career-oriented than men. There’s no denying that a small gender gap in career centrality exists, but is it due to nature or nurture? To answer the question, researcher Stephen Sweet analyzed the cultural forces that go into the importance of career between genders, and his analysis supports what you likely knew already: Women are just as work-oriented as men, if given the opportunity. According to Sweet, the role of caregiver — a job which, even today, largely falls to women — doesn’t actually affect the level of importance people place on their work. Perhaps most importantly, he also found that the difference in career centrality largely owes itself to cultural factors: Women are more likely to work in lower quality jobs, so to speak, because there aren’t as many opportunities for them elsewhere. Crazy, right?
DNAIndia: Indian Air Force soon to have women fighter pilots
India has just announced that it will allow women into the fighter pilot program in the Indian Air Force
The Defence Ministry under Manohar Parrikar has approved the induction of women into the combat stream of IAF. Thus, women can now fly warplanes for the first time.
Expressing happiness over the announcement, a women transport aircraft pilot of IAF based in a front-line base of eastern sector told dna that given a chance at their selection stage, she, and a few other women, who fly non-combat aircraft would have instead chosen fighter roles. “It was a delight to hear our chief announcing it in the morning,” said the pilot who requested anonymity since she is not authorised to speak to the press. She also said that like in other professions, women can adjust to having a family and yet continue as a fighter pilot.