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Greetings!
This month I would like to share with you several new initiatives that the national GWIS organization is implementing to raise our level of communication within our organization. We are using web conferences exclusively for the quarterly National Council Meetings and Financial Oversight Committee Meetings and in January, we will assemble the Grand Chapter web conference meeting for a historical vote on our proposed by-law change (see below).
The National Council
approved this by-law change in June, 2009 at our National Meeting; but now
it must go before the Grand Chapter for final approval.
The Grand Chapter is the ultimate governing body of our organization; it includes two representatives from each chapter (chapter president and one other representative) plus the National Council and comprises of approximately 50 individuals. In the past, we have always held a Grand Chapter meeting at our National Meeting in June, but unfortunately too few chapters were represented. Therefore, the National Council feels that by using the web technology, we can obtain a greater representation from the membership for this historical vote.
The Chapter Presidents received the proposed by-law change in mid-October by e-mail and have been asked to discuss it with their chapter membership. This will allow at least 60 days for discussion (as required by our by-laws) before the vote is taken in early January (date to be determined). The outcome of this web conference will be documented as though it was a standard meeting and the results of the vote will be announced to all.
Below is the proposed by-law change, in italics:
ARTICLE II. MEMBERSHIP
Section 1. Qualifications
Any woman who holds a baccalaureate or higher degree from an accredited institution of higher learning or equivalent degree from a foreign institution, who is or has been engaged in, or is registered for research in one of the mathematical, physical, biological or any discipline in which the scientific method is employed, or who supports the objectives of the Organization, shall be eligible for membership.
Changing this one word, from "and" to "or" will allow our membership to become more inclusive of all who support women in science. If you are interested in the complete rationale behind this change, please contact me. The Chapter Presidents have already received the rationale, and in the interest of complete transparency, it is available to you also.
Have a great Thanksgiving!
United in Friendship through Science,
Dee McManus
National Executive Director
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National GWIS News
Cool Science!
GWIS has joined 150 other partners for the USA Scientific and Engineering Festival Expo on the Washington Mall scheduled October 23 and 24, 2010. Omicron Chapter has graciously agreed to provide the 'cool' science for the GWIS Exhibit. Anyone willing to assist, please contact Omicron President, Paula Lincoln Smith at plls130@comcast.net. For more information about the Festival, see USA Scientific and Engineering Festival website .
Membership Demographics?
Have you ever wondered what disciplines we have in our membership? Initial efforts indicate that largest percentage is biology and biological science (18%) , with chemistry, computer science and bioinformatics, environmental sciences, geosciences, and medical school departments-each at 6%. This is not a scientific analysis, but only a preliminary look based on our members' work sites. This caused us to generate a survey so that we can get your feedback, not only on GWIS News, but also on your scientific discipline. It will take less than 5 minutes to do and provide us with valuable information as we continue to expand. You also, can view the results on-line. Member Survey
Are al l our Members connected? In an effort to enhance communication to the members, we have instituted this monthly e-newsletter, but did you know that not all our members have e-mail? Approximately 5% of our membership does not have e-mail and so we mail a copy of this monthly GWIS E-News to these members.
UNESCO Senior Staff Vacancy PostsUnited Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has made a commitment to reach gender parity among its senior staff by 2015 and they have contacted us to help publish and promote their vacancy announcements. Their Action Plan proposes to increase the number of potentially qualified women applying to their senior level vacant posts advertised in the scientific fields. Look for these job openings in the future! CEDAW not ratified yet! In early November, we were contacted to support a letter to President Obama to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is to vote on the ratification soon. Click on this website for an update on the committee action: CEDAW Status . GWIS, as a non-governmental organization (NGO), sent a representative to the 4th United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. The Declaration and Platform for Action were adopted as strategic objectives and actions to overcome the obstacles to the advancement of women and gender equity. Fifteen years later, the US has still not ratified the CEDAW treaty. Needless to say, the letter was sent! |
National News Headlines
Gender Bias Bingo
The Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California's Hasting College of the Law is unveiling a new online game called Gender Bias Bingo. The game is intended for women, although men who have overheard biased statements or faced bias can also play. Ms. Joanne Williams, professor of law and director of the center designed the game with part of a $300,000 grant from National Science Foundation.
 Is Motherhood keeping Good Scientists Down?
The Center for American Progress (CAP) reports that family obligations (read: child rearing) are still pushing young female researchers out of science. When combined with the earlier National Academy of Science (NAS) report on the biases against women, the stumbling block for women researchers was not being a women, but being a mother. The CAP study indicated that married women with children are 35 percent less like to secure a tenure-track position than married men with children. Click here for the full report: CAP Study
Go West for faculty positions!
A study presented at the American Chemical Society by Valerie Kuck, showed that among top chemistry departments, there is a huge variation in how successful female doctoral graduates and postdocs are at landing tenure-track positions. University of California at Berkley bests all of its rivals in having its female Ph.D's in chemistry land top jobs. In the study, Kuck examined chemistry facilities of 94 universities that the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching categorized as having "very high research activity." She found that 12 universities trained 54 per cent of those hired by the research universities. See how individuals from the top 12 graduate programs land the top faculty jobs and post doc positions at research universities.
Kuck Report
 Who says Women can't do Math and Science?
Forbes recently did a great story about 21 women who either run large U.S. companies as CEO's or are senior managers and one thing in common is that they all had degrees in science or engineering! For example, Caro Bartz, CEO, Yahoo, has a degree in computer science, Ursula Burns, CEO, Xerox, has a BS in mechanical engineering and MS in engineering and Ellen Kullman, CEO, DuPont, has a BS in mechanical engineering and a MBA. For the complete story click here: Forbes
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 Volunteer Opportunities
The management of our National website has been expanded substantially now with 3 chapters (i.e. sub-domains) and two more chapters interested in coming on in early January. With the new services that will be available to us with the latest buy-out and migration of our websites, the future looks promising for us. If you have the ability to work with websites or would like to learn more about updating websites and social networking, why not join our Communications Committee? We will be adding more services through the website in the future, so now is your chance to join us and and use or expand your technical skills. Contact Dee McManus by responding to this email if you are interested.
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 Member's Corner
Dr. Helen Haller, member of our National Board of Directors and current Archivist, is the ultimate global traveler and we all live vicariously through her adventures. Helen belongs to the group of North American Change Ringers who travel around the world ringing bells in bell towers. One of her trips this year was to South Africa where her group traveled for 15 days ringing throughout South Africa and one of the members on the trip, June Kelly, wrote a blog about their travels. See this link for more information on the Change Ringers.
We want to hear from you! Please send us the details of your accomplishments, awards, notices e.g.
looking for a job or have a job for someone; promoted; retired; just got
married/name change; had a baby; new post-doc position; new publication; etc.
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Today's humor
The mathematician, the physicist, and the female engineer were given a red rubber ball and told to find the volume. So the mathematician measured the diameter and evaluated a triple integral. The physicist filled a beaker with water, put the ball in the water, and measured the total displacement. And the engineer looked up the model and serial number in her red-rubber-ball table.
How many existentialists does it take to screw in a light bulb? Two. One to screw it in and one to observe how the light bulb itself symbolizes a single incandescent beacon of subjective reality in netherworld of endless absurdity reaching out toward a maudlin cosmos of nothingness.
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Complements of Wireless, the Prairie Home Companion Pretty Good Joke Book, Vol. 1-4.
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Funding Opportunities and One Stop Research Shopping
GrantNetis your one-stop resource to find funds for research
and training in the sciences. This service is completely free.
A new effort, called the eagle-i-consortium, is funded by a $15 million grant from NIH's National Center for Research Resouces, and aims to centralize catalogs of reagents, cell and issue banks, and model organism lines so that researchers can spend less time scouring the internet for these tools, or worse, re-develop existing tools. The consortuim will erect an internet-based portal, to be available in December, that researchers can use to search for esources aailable at each of the nine participating institutions. For more information on the portal, see One stop Shopping.
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