Aftermath & Recovery

In case you missed it, I added a note to yesterday's post. If the relevance of my experience is not readily apparent to those who wish to promote gender diversity in STEM, AAUW has a report, Crossing the Line: Sexual Harassment at School, which discusses statistics and similar experiences for 21st-Century adolescents.

I've expressed some of my discomfort with conventional White Feminism in previous posts. Some of that discomfort had to do with my originally-conservative religious leanings. Some of it had more to do with the economic and authoritarian / partriarchal background that I come from.

Ripples of Doubt

I have been writing about media, leadership, and culture, and the ways in which Gaslighting and similar  #AbuserDynamics are used to maintain power and control. Much of the recent conversation about Abuser Dynamics and their connection to 'isms, is owed to the black women and women of color who began that hashtag.

Yesterday's conversation with Astro/Physicists and Science Communicators brought up 2013's #RipplesofDoubt conversation (Storify by Karen James). Trigger warning for sexual harrassment in the post below.

While I read and re-Tweeted from the hashtag in 2013, I didn't share my own experiences. One of the reasons I didn't share my own experiences, is that my experiences in undergraduate and graduate education and my experiences with work have been TAMER than what I grew up with.

[2:36 pm Update] In case the relevance of my experience is not readily apparent to those who wish to promote gender diversity in STEM, AAUW has a report, Crossing the Line: Sexual Harassment at School, which discusses statistics and similar experiences for 21st-Century adolescents. [/Update]

I went into college knowing I wasn't physically attractive. Therein, lies the story.

Media and the Path to Leadership

On Friday, I discussed how words can lead to violence. In fact, this process is implicated in last month's death of Grace Rebecca Mann at the University of Mary Washington. I focus this blog more on the ethical and moral aspects of diversity & inclusion, however there are also legal implications for businesses and schools.

The issue of women in STEM has multiple parts. It involves:

1. Media depictions of women
• "You can't be what you can't see."
• Relevant article: How Hollywood Keeps Out Women
2. Women in all phases of education
• Teachers and mentors have a key role in supporting women and Under-Represented Minorities through an often-hostile process of education.
3. Women in Academia, Business, and Industry
• Mentorship doesn't end with graduation, and in fact sponsorship is necessary to ensure that opportunities for advancement are fairly distributed to talent.
• The data in the three reports referenced indicate that 50% of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields leave the field within ~10-15 years of graduation. In order to retain and promote existing women, there must be a path for advancement.
4. Women in Leadership, as business leaders, in politics, government, and academia
• A diverse and inclusive culture must be supported by top leadership in any organization

One of the things that my two years at an all-girl's high school gave me, is that we watched "Killing Us Softly: Advertising's Image of Women" in class. We discussed societies expectations, and how imagery and media affects our thoughts and our words.

The work was recently extended in the Miss Representation film. The extended trailer below begins with media imagery that may not be safe for work, and progresses to comments from leaders like Condoleeza Rice.