#ewy7

[drcknowledgeandpower]

There is, in fact, an M in STEM

Progress has been made by women in the STEM fields, more women are going into STEM. ... STEM: Science Technology Engineering Mathematics. And they only mean Science.

The Douglass STEM programs cater to all Douglass students looking to go into STEM - they said. OH yes, of course, 3 of the 4 tutoring nights for STEM students being catered to Science (Bio, Gen Chem, Orgo Chem) and 1 night for Calculus... I/one/1. How useful is being tutored, when I know more than the tutor?

Opportunities are available for all STEM students, check out the alumni connections we have from pharmaceutical companies and labs. We have Douglass SEBS Environmental Living Community, Douglass Engineering Living Learning Community, HackHERS (this covers the Science Technology and Engineering parts of STEM)... but do I see a Math? nope? great. thanks.

I understand that they are catering their resources to the majorities. There are very few, if any, females like me who major in just math (without engineering or computer science). But I can’t help but feel that I’m not getting what I’m paying for, that I’m not getting what other women in STE... are being provided.

In any case, a first step would be: IS THERE ANY GIRL OUT THERE LIKE ME WHO IS MAJORING IN MATH? I AM DROWNING IN A SEA OF SCIENCE MAJORS AND WE NEED TO BE FRIENDS, PLEASE CONTACT ME SOMEHOW. THANK YOU.

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Work vs Family

My mother would tell me stories about how she met her mentor, my godmother. She is a wonderful hard working woman. A few years ago, she had her own lab and was doing spinal cord research.

No romantic relationships. No children of her own. She had condemned herself to a life of research... and solitude. Even without having a family or children she still faced biases as a scientist. She would have to fill out grants endlessly in order to survive. Getting published was a much longer process than if a male was attempting to do so. 

She grew tired of the constant fight to get funding and so is now managing a male colleague's lab in order to continue earning an income.

She’s in her sixties now, and I’m sharing this to show that even if a woman chooses to abstain from having a family of her own - the biases persist. Even when women are given the excuse that they would not be hired because they have children, this woman has given up that factor and is still subjected to inequality.

[drcknowledgeandpower]

The Gender Pay Gap is REAL

Today in class, we talked about how motherhood affects the gender pay gap. After a female’s first child, their wage decreases on average by about 9 percent. Meanwhile, males would see an increase after becoming fathers. It was mentioned that due to wide dynamics of how women typically work in the jobs that pay less overall anyways - that the gender pay gap could be considered a myth. This is not true. The pay gap is real.

Upon this topic, as a nerdfighter I, of course, immediately wanted to share the exact vlogbrothers video that tackled this topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it0EYBBl5LI

Through biases and discrimination, pay gaps are a real problem. And the first step to solving a problem is to recognize that there is one.

[drcknowledgeandpower]

FemTech: The gift of education

Although this was not the technology that my group in class came up with, I would like to present it here. Over the past few years, studies are showing that standardized tests such as the SAT are biassed. People who are able to afford tutors do considerably and statistically better than those who can't afford such expenses. Getting tutors cost money. This seems to be true everywhere, even on the internet. But this makes the SAT and other such important standardized tests biassed.

Maybe one day people can come together and fix the SAT and other such tests, but for the time being - the bias gap seems to be because tutors cost money. The solution? Free tutoring!

How? You might ask. How would we get tutors to be willing to tutor people for free when they could just as easily get money for their services? The answer? We don't have to. - Websites like yahoo answers teem with all sorts of tutors from students themselves to certified professionals, and yet yahoo answers is a free service. Of course, the last thing we need is another cheating site. 

My proposal is a platform where live tutoring sessions can be opened by anyone for free where any interested tutors can volunteer their time to. It would be a platform where students would be encouraged to tutor their peers, because teaching a topic is the most thorough way to learn it. It would be a platform where explanations and guiding is encouraged in order to make sure the students in need of help get the understanding that they need, and where just supplying answers is discouraged. Tutors don't have to be professionals. New tutors can be born. And sometimes the most effective tutors are those in the same age group as you, since their vocabulary and syntax would be more understandable. This platform would give those who can't afford tutoring to be able to get the tutoring that they need. This platform would have the potential to even the playing ground for the biases the standardized tests have constructed.

And this platform exists.

It is not perfect and is it not popular, but as I described above - it has the potential to even the playing ground of education. www.OpenStudy.com is a platform where anyone can ask for help and anyone can give that help. A majority of their tutors are student who came to the site to get help and have since found enjoyment in giving help back to the community. Professors, retired professors, parents, and teachers also volunteer their time to tutoring the students. All of it completely free, none of those tutoring get paid and the site runs its servers off of the money from the few ads that it has.

www.OpenStudy.com helped me to get 5s on both my AP Calculus AB and BC standardized tests. It helped me to realize my love for passing on my knowledge to others. And I don't believe that enough people are using this amazing tool!

For you college students, networking is also possible on there! The CEO of the site, Preetha Ram makes herself available to all of the users of the site. She has earned degrees from Yale and IIT, and is a Dean at Emory University. A moderator, who goes by mathmale, is a retired professor from Rochester University New Jersey. And there are many many more such people!

It is resource I believe we can all utilize. It has the potential to even the playing ground in current education and provide the tutoring that students need at no cost.

Why Study Alone? www.OpenStudy.com

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Care work, but they don’t care

I especially loved Premilla Nadasen's presentation on care work. Having recently read the class's reading about how industries such as nail salons are unregulated, this talk was a great insight into yet another industry that does not treat humans as humans. Nadasen described how care workers / house keepers / private maids were being paid to do work that should've been done out of the emotion of caring. Caring for the family, the children, the pets, the house when they may honestly not care. It is forcing people to emulate an emotion that they don't actually feel. Families who employ these care workers write them off as almost family members and so they get away with not paying overtime since family members are expected to go above and beyond their duties without extra pay. 

Nadasen also described how these care workers are not actually family to the families they work for. She describes a care workers' recount on what made her quit her care working job when after her employer's bad breakup the employer blamed and shouted at the care worker even though previously the employer had insisted that she was part of the 'family', and it was during the shouting that she realized that she really was not. They do not sit at family meals, do not partake in family events, are not in the family wills - and so no matter what these families sing - these care workers are not really part of the family, and should be paid as such. 

Families who employ care workers but do not pay for overtime because they insist that these care workers are part of their family is a lie that they hide behind. The care work industry is a legitimate industry that deserves to be under the same overtime pay laws and such.

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Plenary 3: Tips and Tricks of going up the ladder

Although slightly disorganized, Bobbie Ridgley gave a plethora of tips and tricks based on her own experiences in working up the leadership ladder. She attempted to tailor her talk to our age group and our previous knowledge and experiences in order to get us to understand better.

As an engineer, Bobbie Ridgley had to deal with highly unproportional male to female ratios, including having to lead an all male team of engineers. She had to deal with not having female mentors and instead finding mentors (male) whenever she could. I found this particularly agreeable because in class, there was a stress put on specifically finding female mentors and I had been wondering "if the purpose is to rise through the ranks, why not just take any available mentors, males included?" - and so Bobbie Ridgley's talk settled this dilemma I was having as a student studying in a male dominated field.

Many things Ridgley described were extremely relate-able and useful to many of us as college students. For example, about how uncomfortable it might be to go out of one's way to 'network', about how it is ok to be the person to take lead in a group when roles are self designated, about how mentors can be found everywhere and we don't have to necessarily call them our 'mentors', about how many skills we learn by simply engaging in the world around us can be transferable to our future endeavors, and about how resumes are actually judged when looked at. Jumping from topic to topic, it was obvious that Ridgley wanted to leave us with as much knowledge she can give us as possible. As disorientating as it was to follow the different topics she covered, I really appreciated all the knowledge she has passed down.

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Plenary 2: Leading us Spritually

I remember in history class, we learned about The Crusades and about Alexander the Great. All religious leaders I have seen have been male. It never occurred to me that it was even possible for there to be female religious leaders. But then again, as I have no religion, I never really gave any of this any thought to begin with. I learned in this Knowledge and Power class that there are very few women in leadership roles throughout all of society. And therefore it was empowering to listen to the stories of these three amazing women religious leaders. It is a wonderful thought that these amazing women are working to pave a path for future women in their respective religions and give spiritual guidance to females who would otherwise feel uncomfortable confiding to males.

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Plenary 1: Jump for your Passions

I, for one, have never heard a podcast before, so my first reaction when Caitlin Kenney first began speaking was “Wow, she’s got a nice voice!”

In attempting to pinpoint how people or companies become successful, I took a special interest to when Caitlin Kenney described how a substituting opportunity led to her long term job in the podcasting business. Audio Media is her passion and it inspires me that she was willing to take a leap at an opportunity for that passion that turned out amazingly well for her. It makes me wonder how many women aren’t like that... how many women turn down opportunities for their passions and instead chain themselves to jobs that they tell themselves would be better and safer for them.

In any case, Caitlin Kenney is a great example of why we should all explore, find, and follow our passions in life. :)