WWEST

  Westcoast Women in Engineering, Science & Technology (WWEST) is a program of the NSERC Chair for Women in Science and Engineering, BC/Yukon @SFU   wwest.ca

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Home - Choose science

People see things in many different ways, so we need everyone’s ideas to solve the world’s biggest problems.

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When I first saw Gravity, it was in theatres. It was breathtaking - literally. Between the intense music that went deep into my core, the dizzying special effects and CGI, and Sandra Bullock's performance, my heart stayed lodged in my throat the whole 1.5 hours, while my hands clutched my armrests until my knuckles turned white. Upon re-watching recently, I came to realize that writers Alfonso (also director) and Jonás Cuarón had created one of the most positive representation of a woman in STEM on screen so far.

Read more about Dr. Ryan Stone here. 

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In this installment, we examine the depiction of a recurring character on The Big Bang Theory, an American sitcom that premiered in 2007 and is still going strong. The show centres primarily around five main characters, four of whom are men holding various positions in the realm of STEM, and their trials, tribulations, and friendship together. The subject of this post, Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler (portrayed by Mayim Bialik), was not introduced into the series until well into season three. In fact, Amy was introduced in the season three finale, long after the characters Penny (Kaley Cuoco) and Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) joined the main cast. Bialik's character, a neurobiologist, was introduced as a potential date for another top-billed character, Sheldon (Jim Parsons), and began a relationship in which Amy's presence mostly revolved around him.

Read more about Amy here. 

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In this installment of our "Depictions of Women in STEM" series, we focus on Patty Tolan of the 2016 film Ghostbusters. I would like to preface this article by saying that I appreciate all of the women of colour who have contributed to the discussion over the importance of Leslie Jones and her portrayal of Patty Tolan. These women's voices have been included here to ensure a nuanced analysis of why Patty as a character should be celebrated, as well as critiqued, so we can all aspire to better representations of women (and women of colour) in our media.

For those reading who are not familiar with the Ghostbuster franchise, it began in 1984 with its first movie. Ghostbusters II was released in 1989, and an iteration was released in 2016 featuring an all-female Ghostbusters team. The Ghostbusters investigate paranormal activity, and in each movie, the team is made up of mostly academics in STEM fields. The 2016 movie has been vilified by the alt-right, praised by others, and seen as a “missed opportunity for feminism” by some.  It should be pointed out that the screenplay for this movie was written by a white man and a white woman – Paul Feig and Katie Dippold – who can hardly be expected to accurately portray a black woman’s experience, whether she works in a STEM field or not.

Read more about Patty here. 

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In this next installment of our series on depictions of women in STEM, we take a look at Special Agent Dana Scully of the Fox Entertainment series The X-Files.

Agent Dana Scully is a force to be reckoned with. When she was first placed in the X-Files office to contend with her new partner Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), she only had a small inkling of the Boys Club she would be dealing with. Portrayed by Gillian Anderson, a self-proclaimed feminist in her own right, she became an iconic fictional woman in STEM who has inspired people of all genders worldwide.

The X-Files is a sci-fi show that has it all (almost): Aliens, government conspiracies, a dynamic FBI agent duo, and spooky paranormal cases for the agents to solve. The department where Agents Scully and Mulder work, the X-Files, deals with paranormal cold cases such as (but not limited to) a large humanoid-flukeworm (“The Host”), a high school teacher who embodies a demon named Azazel (“Die Hand Die Verletzt”), and a stillborn boy who possesses his twin brother’s body (“The Calusari”). Scully is assigned to the X-Files in order to discredit the work of Agent Mulder, who is known around the Bureau as “Spooky” because of his penchant for the paranormal and his strong belief that extraterrestrials have come to Earth. As time goes on, the agents find themselves involved in a convoluted web of government conspiracy.

Read more about Scully here.

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In this next installment of our series on depictions of women in STEM, we examine Kaywinnet Lee (Kaylee) Frye of the short-lived TV show Firefly, portrayed by Jewel Staite.

Underneath Kaylee’s sweet exterior is an extraordinary engineer with a penchant for machines and mechanics. As the mechanic of the ship, Serenity, in the space western drama that aired from September to December 2002, Kaylee had a deep love for the ship that she kept running. Despite her lack of formal training, she managed to steal the previous mechanic’s job by fixing the ship when he said there was no hope for it. She almost embodied the ship as if it were a living character on the show, as she would express hurt if the ship’s capabilities was insulted, and if her mechanical skills did fail her on the rare occasion, she would slip into a deep sadness. She is almost seen as having an intuitive knowledge of mechanics, skills that she was “born with.” This could be seen as problematic, as “Radengineer” points out on her blog: “It buys into the idea that people are born with mechanical ability – an idea that people have been using to explain why women just aren’t interested in engineering. […] I don’t think it’s useful to characterize Kaylee as having been born with this knowledge because it’s not possible and it contributes to women and minorities feeling ‘imposter syndrome’ when something doesn’t naturally come to them.”

Read more about Kaylee here.

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NowThis Her

'Be comfortable with imperfection' — this tech CEO is showing girls how to be brave

This is so cool!

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Recently, WWEST Chairholder Dr. Lesley Shannon took a trip to the Yukon to visit women engineers who are part of an initiative called 30 by 30, a commitment made by Engineers Canada, in collaboration with the 12 provincial and territorial engineering regulators, to raise the percentage of newly licensed engineers who are women to 30% by the year 2030. Women make up more than half of the Canadian population, but are significantly under-represented in the engineering profession; less than 12% of practicing licensed engineers are women. Join Dr. Shannon as she speaks with two successful women engineers, Sandra MacDougall and Alison Anderson, in a special on-location Best of the WWEST interview in Whitehorse, YT. You'll learn some Yukon history, hear about how climate change is affecting their region, and discover the Yukon's role in the 30 by 30 initiative.

Listen here or download on your favourite podcast service provider. 

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Best of the WWEST host Danniele interviews Christiana Cheng, Research Associate at the Rick Hansen Institute. Christiana talks about her undergarduate and graduate degrees in biology at Simon Fraser University and fellowship in Japan, lets us in on the favourite parts of her field (hint: it involves a strong network between provinces and hospitals), offers advice for students of science (take your time!), parents of scientists (give your kids equal opportunities), and future scientists alike; and reveals her tips for dealing with stress.

Listen here or download on your favourite podcast service provider.

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Join WWEST Manager Danniele Livengood and Creating Connections 5.0 Coordinator Jenna Anderson for a recap of the biennial Creating Connections 5.0 conference. The conference aims to engage industry, the community, and students in BC and the Yukon to increase the regional awareness and participation of women and other under-represented groups in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). The Creating Connections conference series hopes to facilitate meaningful dialogue, creating a space where everyone can explore and participate in STEM to better our world.

Listen here or download on your favourite podcast service.

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Recently, WWEST Chairholder Dr. Lesley Shannon took a trip to the Yukon to visit women engineers who are part of an initiative called 30 by 30, a commitment made by Engineers Canada, in collaboration with the 12 provincial and territorial engineering regulators, to raise the percentage of newly licensed engineers who are women to 30% by the year 2030. Women make up more than half of the Canadian population, but are significantly under-represented in the engineering profession; less than 12% of practicing licensed engineers are women. Read about this amazing trip at http://i.sfu.ca/OzrKGL

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It's strange to think of a time when we didn't know that the ocean bottom isn't flat, but that time did exist. When scientist Alfred Wegener first proposed his theory of continental drift, no one believed him and thought he couldn't possibly be correct. That is, until Marie Tharp discovered the 10,000-mile-long Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and proved him right. Read more at http://i.sfu.ca/McjRWI

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This week, we speak with Justine Munich, a PhD student in physics at Simon Fraser University who also works with the ALPHA Collaboration at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research). Justine fills us in on the truth about life in academia from the perspective of a woman in STEM. She candidly tells us about her struggles, but also about her successes and proudest moments. Find out what furry friend she hangs out with in her spare time, what her favourite book is, and how her career is relating to the world at large.

Listen here or download on your favourite podcast service.

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In reality, women in STEM are underrepresented in the workplace. But even in fiction, this trend bleeds into the portrayals of women in STEM, especially in television and film. While it is important to recognize the lack of representation, and problematic representations of fictional women in STEM that do exist, we would like to use this blog series to celebrate the positive portrayals of fictional women in STEM in entertainment. This series introduces and expands upon fictional women in STEM who have been featured in entertainment aimed at all ages, and the actors who brought their characters to life, and our hope is that far more positive portrayals of similar women in STEM will continue to appear in film and television.

The fictional representations of women in STEM have not always been positive. While there are a growing number of women depicting characters in the STEM fields, male characters received two times the amount of screen time as woman characters in 2015; men are also depicted five times more than women as STEM professionals. These numbers and the discrepancies between men and women in TV and film are significant. As a catalyst for inspiring girls and young women to pursue careers in STEM fields, the representation of women in STEM in media is very important.

Fictional women in STEM have had a somewhat established presence in TV series and movies - as early as 1956, the television series The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu included Carla Balenda in the STEM-adjacent role of Nurse Betty Leonard. In 1966, Star Trek: The Original Series featured Nyota Uhura and Janice Rand, woman characters who climbed the ranks in their plotlines – the former also being a woman of colour. And since 2000, there have been over 26 television shows featuring women in STEM.

This first installment of our series focuses on Nyota Uhura from Star Trek: The Original Series, and the woman who brought her to life on the screen.

Read more about Uhura here.

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A compliment is a compliment is a compliment, right? Not according to the Finkbeiner Test.

Film has the Bechdel Test, which asks whether a work of fiction features at least two women (who have names) who talk to each other about something other than a man, but science has taken this investigation one step further and can now claim the Finkbeiner Test. Read this blog post here http://i.sfu.ca/PtcvCS

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On the very first episode of Best of the WWEST, WWEST Manager Danniele Livengood talks to Cole Brown, lead front-end web developer at iamota, about how she got into web development, some of the challenges she faced breaking into the tech industry, and her secret superpowers (which include sewing, cat training, and swimming)!  

Listen here or download on your favourite podcast service.

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Humans are storytellers. In the end, that may be the thing that we are remembered for - our ability to spin words into worlds, and pull narratives out of nothing. The majority of the entertainment industry is based around one principle: which stories are worth sharing? Directors, producers, and studios make decisions every day about what kinds of shows they will produce, what themes they will focus on, and which characters deserve screen time. Unfortunately, many of the characters that have been deemed less worthy of screen time are women who are working and succeeding in science, engineering, technology, and mathematics. The White House Council on Women and Girls and The Office of Science and Technology Policy recently released a fact sheet dealing with current problems related to STEM depiction in the media, as well as strategies for solving them.

Read more here.