Sexism in the Media

The video is from the Women's Media Center and includes some really shocking examples of sexism in the media during this presidential campaign, most of it specific to Hillary of course. Note the high percentage of clips from Fox News. My favorite part is when the female anchor is so overwhelmed by Bill O'Reilly's sexist sleeziness that she can't help but roll her eyes in disgust.

On another but related note, since when did news anchors provide their own damn opinions?! Whatever happened to the objective journalism?

Seen on Wicked Anomie and Feministing.

Where I've Been and Also A Gender Thing

Well, I've been gone on vacation for a few weeks now. A "vacation" involving 3,950ish miles of driving with hubby. Yes, driving. What was I thinking?! Why didn't we just go sit on a beach somewhere for 2 weeks? Anyway, improbably, we had a lot of fun, saved some money and gained some smug by driving a borrowed one of these, (I want one! I want one!) and saw a lot of friends and family. We also got to scope out our future city and managed to eke out some some beach time on
Orcacoke Island.

Other than that, I am gearing up for my state's democratic convention. I don't plan on wearing a bullet-proof vest, but that is only because I do not own one.

In that regard, it's good to be back in the blogosphere for the conclusion(?) of the democratic nomination process. I'm glad I didn't miss Wicked Anomie's very smart and accessible summary of the role of McCain and Obama's masculinities in this campaign. Although as a caveat on this one, I'm not totally comfortable analyzing these anonymous allegations re: comments by McCain.

Gender Imbalance in Intramural NIH Scientists

This article reporting on a study conducted by the NIH on its intramural female scientists doesn't come as a surprise. The article goes on to report that women are more likely to make career concessions than men and that a change in academic and scientific culture will be necessary to combat the gender gap. (Don't hold your breath!) It also says that while men and women rate themselves equally when it comes to professional skills, women are less confident that they will obtain PI positions and receive tenure.

I find it interesting that the story has long been "more women trained in science and admitted to university, graduate school, and postdocs will soon translate to more women in tenured and PI positions." That seems so hopelessly naive to me. The reality is that something is wrong with the system and the culture (of academia, research, and the "rest of the world") and that throwing more women into the system at the lower level isn't going to magically solve the problem.

clipped from www.nih.gov Although women comprise nearly half of all undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral scientists nationwide, after committing 10 to 15 years to scientific training, many leave academic research during the career transition to faculty or tenured positions. For example, at the NIH, only 29 percent of the tenure-track principal investigators (PI) and 19 percent of tenured PIs — the NIH equivalent of assistant and full professors, respectively — are women. These figures have hardly changed over the last decade and mirror the disparities at most academic research institutions.