Women in STEM News

8 Women In Tech Explain How They Broke Into The Industry

It’s no secret that women are underrepresented in tech. According to statistics from the National Girls Collaborative Project, women make up half of the overall workforce, and yet hold just 28 percent of STEM-related jobs in the U.S. And according to Code.org, only roughly 18 percent of computer science degrees go to women. The road to gender parity is a slow-moving and bumpy one, especially in tech — but one such barrier to entry is the idea that you have to have majored in a STEM field to go on to work in the industry, which is becoming more and more untrue. Read More…

The Woman Who Founded Industrial Medicine

In the 21st century climate of preventive medicine, we count on government agencies around the world to warn us about medical hazards in our lives. Yet, few people know that American national safety standards were pioneered by a 19th century female scientist, a pathologist who disliked conflict but used her fastidious research to challenge U.S. manufacturers on the issues of lead, explosives, coal and noxious dyes. Indeed, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) hails Alice Hamilton (1869–1970) as the founder of industrial medicine in America. Read More…

All-women Delta crew flies 120 girls to NASA to encourage female aviators

A recent Delta flight from Salt Lake City to Houston was a bit out of the ordinary. A plane operated entirely by women flew 120 young girls to NASA’s headquarters to celebrate International Girls in Aviation Day. The passengers on Delta’s fifth-annual WING flight — “Woman Inspiring our Next Generation” — ranged in age from 12 to 18. The aim of the program is to expose young girls to STEM careers and work towards gender equality in the aviation industry. Read More…

13 Amazing Facts About the Women of NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration—better known as NASA—is primarily thought of as a boy’s club, and in many ways, it has been. But over the course of its history, women have made some extraordinary contributions to NASA and the aerospace profession in general. The 2017 film Hidden Figures shone a much-needed light on three African-American women who worked for NASA as human computers in the 1960s, but there is so much more to each of their stories. For example, Katherine Johnson (played by Taraji P. Henson in the movie) graduated from high school at the age of 14 and graduated summa cum laude from college at the age of 18, with bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and French, according to Essence. Read More…

Cactus juice is the new…plastic? Female scientist discovers biodegradable plastic alternative

Plastic is everywhere — the average American consumes 70,000 pieces of plastic per year, according to the American Chemical Society. The reality is that most plastic doesn’t wind up getting recycled. Much of it ends up in landfills, or worse the ocean, National Geographic reports. One researcher from Mexico says she has a green solution — literally. Sandra Pascoe Ortiz, a chemical engineering professor at the University of the Valley of Atemajac in in Zapopan, Mexico, has developed a plastic made from cactus juice. Read More…

Harvard’s Forgotten Female Astronomers

When a 23-year-old single mother started working as a maid for Harvard professor Edward C. Pickering, class of 1865, he didn’t expect her to change our understanding of the stars. It was 1879 and Williamina P. S. Fleming needed work: She had immigrated to Boston a year earlier, only to be abandoned by her husband shortly thereafter. Back in Scotland, Fleming had been a schoolteacher — she was a quick learner, and she began teaching when she was just 14. Pickering hired Fleming shortly after he became the director of the Harvard College Observatory. Pickering wanted to gather information about all the stars that are visible from Earth and organize it in a massive catalog. He started taking thousands of glass plate photographs through his telescope. But to process all the data, he needed a team of scientists to examine each photo, correct the image for the distorting effect of Earth’s atmosphere, and then record the properties of the stars in spreadsheets. Read More…

UNSW scientist first woman honoured with top chemistry prize

Jane Goodall Keeps Going, With a Lot of Hope (and a Bit of Whiskey)

Jane Goodall nursed a glass of neat Irish whiskey. It was the end of a long day of public appearances, and her voice was giving out. That’s what Ms. Goodall does these days. She talks. To anyone who will listen. To children, chief executives and politicians. Her message is always the same: The forests are disappearing. The animals are going quiet. We’re running out of time. Ms. Goodall, the celebrated primatologist, was in New York as part of her ongoing efforts to raise money for her institute and its affiliates. The nonprofit organization raises money for conservation efforts across Africa, and works with local communities to promote economic self-sufficiency and improve public health. It’s proven to be an effective model for preserving chimpanzee habitats, yet Ms. Goodall is worried it’s not working fast enough. Read More…

Inside Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd’s mission to build the ‘female internet’

“We’re not one of our competitors that’s just trying to hook people up,” says Whitney Wolfe Herd, the 30-year-old CEO of Bumble, the online dating platform where women have to initiate potential interest. “We’re trying to say, ‘Let’s change thousands of years of behavior. Globally.’ Do you see why this is so challenging?” Wolfe Herd, who founded Bumble in 2014, is fueled by a utopian vision of social justice, where women feel empowered to make the first move in all areas of their lives, and it drives virtually every decision at the company. It influences her hiring: 82% of the employees are female, along with almost all of the executive leadership. Read More…

4 immigrant CEOs on their biggest challenges as entrepreneurs

The process of immigrating to the U.S. is a lengthy, convoluted one. Unlike other countries, the U.S. doesn’t have a startup visa—President Trump put the brakes on a program introduced by President Obama—which means an aspiring immigrant entrepreneur who lacks a green card may have to jump through hoops to start a company (if they can get a visa at all). Against the backdrop of anti-immigration sentiment and policies, the hurdles facing immigrants of all stripes, especially would-be entrepreneurs, are only growing. Four immigrant CEOs shared the challenges they’ve faced—and continue to face—as they build their companies and navigate through the immigration system. Read More…