Hello ladies of science, my name is Chloe (19 F) and I am a Structural Engineering major at my university. I recently had an encounter with my professor in my lab that just shook me the wrong way and I can’t stop thinking about it. We had an assignment to make a bridge, and we would have a competition to see which bridge would hold the most weight at the end. The team whose bridge is still standing at the end will win extra credit in the course. This eventually led to my team’s bridge (a team consisting of all women) to be up against a team that consisted of all men. You can probably see where I am going with this. 

So we presented our bridges, and at first it looked like a really close race. This professor has a history of marginalizing his female students and everyone in the class knew this, yet we could feel them silently rooting for our bridge. Upon adding more weight, it was clear that our bridge was superior. The men’s bridge collapsed, ours standing proud next to it, and the room fell silent. Finally, my professor sighed and said, "Well, that's surprising. I wouldn’t have expected that from an all-girls team!” He frantically searched around the boy’s bridge to examine where and how it had collapsed, looking for a reason to make us lose the competition. 

Everyone knew he had found nothing, but he insisted that the boy’s bridge had collapsed accidentally and it couldn’t be concluded that we won for sure. Everyone knew that we had won, but the professor refused to award us with our extra credit. Our team spoke with him privately and asked him if there was any way he would reconsider his decision, but he disagreed and said that we would have to wait until the next opportunity to try again. His overall response just felt dismissive, like my concerns weren’t valid.

I’m torn about how to move forward. Part of me wants to let it go and focus on my education, but another part feels like ignoring it will only allow the problem in my department to continue. Should I escalate this to the department or try talking to the professor again? Its so difficult as a young woman having to navigate these spaces without feeling like I constantly have to prove myself.

Would love to hear your advice or thoughts on how you’ve handled gender bias—or what social justice in STEM means to you. Thank you for reading, and sorry for the long post!

Hello all!

Hope everyone is doing well!!

I did my PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology with a concentration in Virology in the USA. I have 5+ years of BSL3/4 flavivirus + SARS research experience and I am currently working as a Postdoctoral Fellow in a medical center but I would like to move to Europe/UK. I have heard a lot of praise of the work-life balance in the EU and honestly my PhD was super tiring as it usually is for everyone. If anyone has any tips on where and how to apply for scientist/research positions please let me know I would really appreciate it! Also, how easy is it for scientists to get sponsorship for such roles? TIA!!

I’m a CMU student majoring in AI computer science and I'm surrounded by the “the best of the best” and still, I’m concerned for the generation of young kids who believe everything GenAI says as gospel. We know that AI is algorithmically biased and can generate results that further propagate biases, but who gets a say in defining what is biased? I keep thinking about how these teams are 80% male... should it really be up to them? I think platforms seriously need to give users the collective right to judge bias on their own terms.

How much do you guys trust GenAI technology? Is there a need to advocate for our own voices as users or am I just overreacting?

Here are some additional articles in case you want to see for yourself the biases that were found in GenAI: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2023-generative-ai-bias/

https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/12/12/1064751/the-viral-ai-avatar-app-lensa-undressed-me-without-my-consent/

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/24/tech/google-search-ai-results-incorrect-fix/index.html#:~:text=Business%20%2F%20Tech-,Google%20Search's%20AI%20falsely%20said%20Obama%20is%20a%20Muslim,it's%20turning%20off%20some%20results&text=Alphabet%20CEO%20Sundar%20Pichai%20speaks,criticism%20for%20some%20false%20results.

https://nettricegaskins.medium.com/the-boy-on-the-tricycle-bias-in-generative-ai-d0fd050121ec

Attention, STEMinists! IndyINTEGIRLS will be hosting its annual Winter Math Competition on December 14, 2024 from 12 PM to 3 PM EST. This competition will be held virtually through Zoom and in-person for Indiana residents and is open to all woman-identifying and non-binary students in grades 6-12. This includes non-Indiana residents and international students, too! Registration is free for all, and all participants will be eligible to win exclusive raffle prizes. All participants will also receive a free subscription to Taskade Premium and a participation certificate, and top scorers will be eligible to win cash prizes!

If you do not fit the eligibility requirements to compete, please consider forwarding this message to someone who does. We're totally sure they'll appreciate your thoughtful gesture. For more information about this exciting opportunity, please visit our official AoPS announcement post here:

Attention, everyone! Indianapolis INTEGIRLS will be hosting its annual Spring Math Competition on May 19, 2024 from 12 PM to 4 PM EST. This competition will be held virtually through Zoom, and it's open to all woman-identifying and/or non-binary students in grades 6-12 (with exceptions for mathematically gifted elementary school students). Yep, this includes non-Indiana residents and international students, too. Registration is free for all, and all participants will be eligible to win exclusive raffle prizes. For top scorers, there will be cash prizes!
If you do not meet the eligibility requirements to compete, please consider sharing this message with someone who does. We're sure they will appreciate it. For more information on this exciting opportunity, please visit our official AoPS announcement post here: https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h3448073

Link to register: https://registerintegirls.carrd.co/

Hi all! As a final stage of interview process I will be having on site day with the company, big multinational company’s R&D, senior scientist position. So far I had behavioural and situational interview, typical questions and also some technical interview about my background. I am expected to deliver a seminar around any topic of my research for the team followed by questions. I am expected to be there for the whole day. Even though I previously worked for a large company in a similar, but lower level role, recruiting happened online due to covid. I am looking for advice of those of you who went through those: What to expect, what kind of questions should I expect, what are good things to ask the team there etc. I also had somebody who I met on a conference before and working there reach out to me and offer help if I need it. Seems like a good sign? I am currently really struggling with my current job, being absolutely unappreciated and my self confidence is really suffering - hence, asking for advice! Thank you in advance!

Hi everyone, not sure if this is the correct place to ask this question. I always wanted to take one year's rest (I can't sleep peacefully in the final half year of my uni, mentally exhausted) and spend time with family + travel around after graduation, then started my first job as RA (biochem or pharm), but will this make people decide not to hire me because the gap after uni feels like unemployment after uni?

Thanks everyone.

I finished my PhD a few years ago. Early on in grad school, things were challenging with my advisor. I eventually learned that he was dealing with some personal issues and these issues were seeping into the lab and how he treated his students. I will note that he often told me very personal details about what he was going through that I felt crossed the line at times. He started going to therapy and things greatly improved. By the end of my PhD, our relationship was friendly and he was very helpful in securing the postdoc position that I eventually took.

I am now in a faculty position at another university, and continue to collaborate with my former advisor due to a project that we are both PIs on. Because we work in the same field, we attend the same conferences and see each other in person 2-3 times a year. At these conferences, we’ll often have dinner together (in a large group) and socialize. I’ve never felt like it went beyond a friendly interaction between former student/advisor/collaborators, and I’m careful about setting boundaries in professional settings.

However, we recently had a Zoom call in which he confessed that he has romantic feelings towards me and wants to pursue them. Firstly, I was caught completely off guard since I thought the call would be about the project we’re working on. I told him that I was not interested and that I see him as more of a mentor. The call ended quickly after that.

While I know that there is no longer a power imbalance since I’m not his current student, we continue to work in the same field in which he is very highly respected. I don’t think he’s the type to retaliate, but I didn’t expect this from him either. This situation has been very upsetting, and has made me question every interaction we’ve had. I’m worried about the continued collaborations, but mostly about his potential to ruin my reputation or affect my career long-term. Given his connections, I fear that he could affect my ability to get tenure.

Can anyone offer any advice about how to handle this situation going forward?

Hi all, I am invited to on site all day interview at a very large international company for a senior scientist position. It is in a major city in Europe where prices are a bit high. I need to book a hotel and any half decent ones in the city centre are 180-200 euros (they suggested I stay there and are of course paying for all, flights, hotel, arranging a taxi etc.). I want to prioritise my safety and not stay in any dodgy areas and also too far out of the centre since I need to travel in the day before and want to relax a bit before the day of the interview. I am travelling from another country so need to fly 2+ hours. In any case, I don’t want to seem greedy, but city seems very overbooked and not many decent places are left 3 weeks in advance :/

Am I overthinking? Please, advise 🙂 Also if anyone has a personal experience with full day visits with holding a technical presentations etc, please share 😀

I am trying to arrange for an internship/work experience in a lab, however I am getting ghosted. I usually start by introducing myself, what degree i’m doing, why i’m interested and when I will be available. But I wonder if I am missing some etiquette or doing something wrong. Sorry if this very ignorant I am genuinely clueless

Hello everyone! I am 37, graduated late in life with 2 BS degrees, one in biology and the other in medical laboratory science. I graduated with a 4.0 in both. I was working as a certified medical laboratory scientist for 2 years until last July. I quit due to the long overnight hours and being pregnant it was just too much physically. I haven't been able to find a job since. Biology related jobs don't call me back (because my work experience is in medical lab?), and healthcare is struggling right now, plus I need work hours that aren't crazy. Even part-time assistant jobs won't call me, maybe because I'm "overqualified"? I'm lost as to what to do. I worked really hard in school to have a great academic record, and now it seems it either doesn't matter or is outright hurting me. I'm now in my third trimester, so thinking about taking a break on applying and just trying to figure out where to go from here. Does anyone have any advice on what I'm missing? I'm interested in research, but no experience outside of school and the NIDA GCP course. I enjoy working with numbers and statistics, so I've thought about data analytics or science, or even finance, but those seem difficult to break into right now. Remote work would be great due to where I live, but a commute to a big city is doable. Should I get some certification I'm missing? Change careers? Apply for a different job title? I'm not really in a position to go back for a MS right now. I know nobody here can really tell me what to do, I was just hoping someone might have an idea I haven't come up with yet. Thanks everyone!

Hello, STEM Enthusiasts!

IndyINTEGIRLS is excited to announce its fifth annual Winter Math Competition! 🤩This competition will be held on December 14, 2024 from 12 PM to 3 PM EST and is open to all woman-identifying and non-binary students in grades 6-12. This competition will be held virtually through Zoom and is open to non-Indiana residents and international students, too. 🌎 

Registration is free, and all participants will be eligible to win exclusive raffle prizes ranging from gift cards to IndyINTEGIRLS merch and more! All participants will receive a participation prize and a 1-year subscription of Taskade Premium (scholarship/service). Top scoring individual and team participants will receive cash and scholarship prizes. We will be giving away $10k+ in scholarships, merchandise, gift cards, and more. 🤑

If you don't meet the eligibility requirements, please consider sharing this news with a friend who does. We're confident they'll appreciate your thoughtful gesture. 💜 Registration is free, but spots are limited, so make sure you sign up at https://registerintegirls.carrd.co by December 12, 2024 at 11:59 PM EST. We hope to see you there!

https://preview.redd.it/zteyu1kb1a2e1.jpg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ff96c5ae7640dcfba21e34d3cf54b7f1d696f3ac

32 y/o female working as a post doc. The lab in I’m in a mixture of academic/industry-most PIs are associate professors and have more of a business structure than academia. My boss is newer and is not a professor so he can’t accept grad students etc. i work with two other female associates-one young (22 yo) and 35 y/o. Our lab accepted two undergrad students that are also female. One of the students has a last name like “Runtz” although change out the R with a K. My boss proceeded to say “idk how to pronounce it” to each female individually in our lab. Wtf?! Idk if he’s trying to be funny or just wants to say the word. Poor girl has probably been teased about it all her life and here is a grown A man telling his entire female lab before she even gets here that her last name is cunts. I couldn’t hide my face the third time I heard him say it. I was like r u kidding me!

Hi All!!

I am a chemist in an inorganic chem lab (metals testing of environmental samples - ie LOTS of acid).

I am also neurodiverse and very sensitive to lenses/field of vision things.

The goggles I wore in College and after no longer do the trick and I'm finding that looking through the plastic is the issue for me (headaches, etc.).

Does anyone have recommendations for goggles (preferred) or safety glasses for those very sensitive to vision issues?

I wear prescription contact lenses that adjust my near-sighted vision, and therefore Rx goggles don't quite work either. (Need the contacts for other health ish, so wearing my Rx glasses w/goggles isn't an option either).

I am in the US if that helps/hinders anything!

Thank you!!

Hi there! I'm new here! I am currently a student and am about to get my Associates of Science in a biology "pathway". Essentially, my prerequisites are done. I now need to decide what school id like to attend to finish out my bachelor's degree and more importantly, what major Id like to pursue.

Currently I have interest in a Biology/chemistry double major or major and minor. I am not sure where this pathway would lead me career wise but I feel that the chemistry background may make me more employable. I thoroughly enjoy chemistry and biology and see myself in a lab or educational setting. Other pathways I have considered include pathology (pathologist assistant), microbiology, chemical engineering. Education is a bit of a back up plan although I feel I would be happy in that role.

I have been doing research on what a day in the life of these careers looks like and still feel at a loss as to what to do next. What program I decide to pursue will determine which school I transfer to, what part of the state I live in, etc.

I am finding myself frozen with fear of making the wrong choice. I don't want to take an easy way out and wish id challenged myself more, nor do I want to be so challenged that I feel inadequate and turn my life upside down for nothing.

Please, any advice or personal stories about how you decided what path to take into STEM is very appreciated. I don't know what to do!

What do you do? Do you enjoy it? Do you live comfortably and have a good work life balance?

Hi all, I’m 34/F with a career in science. I have ~10 years of experience in my field, but recently switched to a new job where I feel inexperienced. It’s a bit of a diversion from my previous career path, but I still have a solid basis. One of my coworkers has been assigned to be my mentor to help me to adjust to the new job and give me info on how things are done. He has honestly been very helpful with navigating my new job, but now that I am feeling more comfortable, he is a little too involved for my liking. He “mansplains” things to me that I already knew, even when I say that I know what he’s talking about. He dismisses my ideas. Instead he will talk to me about his solutions for problems which don’t seem logical to me. When I tell him that I don’t think his idea will work for reasons X, Y, and Z, he finds a way to ignore me so that we have to try his idea. I feel that it would be rude to disengage from these conversations with him because solving these problems is part of my job. I don’t want to just walk away because I think he will read that as I don’t care about solving the problem. One of my new duties is to manage a lab (instruments, not people) which I inherited from this coworker. He is supposed to move on to other work. I took over the lab a few weeks ago, but he is still very involved and it is stressing me out. He looks at data from the instruments and will tell me if there’s something I need to address instead of letting me figure that out myself. If I ask him any questions about the lab, his answer gets drawn out and he essentially tells me that I shouldn’t bother trying to change how things are done. The other day, one of the instruments wasn’t working properly. I ended up googling the problem and seeing that we should upgrade the firmware. My coworker said that didn’t make any sense and started looking at something inconsequential to the problem we were having. When he couldn’t figure it out, he involved another (male) coworker. That coworker noticed that the firmware was outdated and said that we should upgrade it. Neither one of them acknowledged that I thought of that first. This is really frustrating me and making me feel like it’s not worth talking about my own ideas. I don’t think my coworker will really listen if I try to talk to him about him. I think I may bring it up to my boss, but I don’t know if that would be inappropriate. I’m wondering how you all have dealt with issues like this in your work places! I would really like to keep things civil and not burn any bridges right now.

Hey Everyone,

I work as a Project Manager for a Solar Construction company and I do a decent amount of field work.

I am looking for workwear pants that fit curvy women. I have a big hip to waist ratio (thick thighs and hips but thinner waist), so even finding jeans is a challenge. I am also preferably looking for higher rise.

Does anyine have a pants or brand that would work?

Hello! My name is Sarah Silberman, I am a Criminology and Criminal Justice Doctoral Candidate at the University of Maryland who researches sexual violence, and I am currently recruiting for an interview study on sexual misconduct in academia. For IRB approval, please see see my department page here: https://ccjs.umd.edu/gradprofile/silberman/sarah The goal of this study is to better understand the impact of academic sexual misconduct on graduate students in the greater-DC area. This study is seeking diverse voices on this topic, and I am looking to speak with people currently in academia, who are planning on leaving, and who have already left. If you or someone you know who experienced academic sexual misconduct: 1) as a graduate student 2) in the greater-DC area 3) between 2011 and now and 4) is interested in participating in a 1.5 - 2 hour interview, please fill out the interest form here: tinyurl.com/asmneardc

https://preview.redd.it/mdq25j30eo1e1.png?width=2938&format=png&auto=webp&s=43c44da66cf87d87e00c2da9584a203a5ee53f11

Hi STEM ladies. I’m currently applying for a PhD studentship, in cell biology/molecular biology. I have a Bachelors and one year internship experience as per the application requirements. However it’s a pretty competitive program and I know students with Masters will have a research advantage over me. Does anyone have any tips or advice to set myself apart and really be a unique candidate? I’d appreciate any help.

Reposting here cuz I got nothing but crickets from the gradadmissions subreddit.

Very much in the quagmire of the title. I got my masters degree 10 years ago and have been working since, but have always loved science and decided to apply to PhDs this year in the US. I feel like I have all the tools I need to succeed, but I’ve been away from the academic world so long I def have catching up to do in my field and interests. I was on a role for a while but have been frozen with no progress for the last 2 weeks on my statements, and the deadlines are closing quick. Just feeling like what’s the point, academia and industry don’t talk to each other and I have no idea how to make myself competitive against those who are in the system and nurtured by it. Just feel like giving up but I know I will look back and be upset at myself for not trying. Anyone have any advice? I’m going into biology.

Hi! Sorry in advance if this is the wrong sub to post this. I'm a current high school student (17F) and I'm really interested to hear about your journeys in STEM as I would love to be inspired by all of you.

Growing up, I've always felt that I had more natural aptitude for the humanities. I really enjoy reading and writing - moving around a lot as a kid, I've been exposed to a lot of languages and cultures, and I'm really passionate about learning foreign languages.

I never seriously considered pursuing a STEM career until high school, but this is where the problems sort of begin. The STEM culture at my high school is very male-dominated, and thanks to my male friendships and outgoingness (?) I've been able to participate in a lot of STEM-related extracurriculars and opportunities (math, competitive programming, physics, etc.) While I enjoy STEM, I'm certainly not the best at it, and I can't help but feel like I haven't really accomplished a lot on my own merit.

Recently I've experienced a falling-out with some of my best friends (who are male), and it's made me realize that my access to certain opportunities is really contingent on being friends with them. The worst part is that a lot of my female friends would feel more comfortable going to these clubs or participating in competitions with me there, and now that my presence feels like an intrusion, I'm not really in a position to help them anymore.

I'm feeling really discouraged because up until this point I had been very clear about my goals: I wanted to double major in Computer Science and Linguistics and maybe get a PhD in Computational Linguistics, researching gender bias in AI algorithms. I feel so uncertain about whether this is my real passion and whether I can even succeed. I don't think I'm going to give up, but it feels like I no longer belong in this world. I've overcome obstacles related to gender before (like when I was told I couldn't succeed in a STEM career) but it feels like I've hit rock bottom again.

Any advice would be appreciated! Just being able to hear your story would be great as well :)

Akito Kawahara is a world famous entomologist who runs a lab at the McGuire Center at the University of Florida.

Akito is very rich. His family has homes/apartments/lofts in at least 3 different countries.

Akito is the best at finding and luring talented students. He's not good at research or science. He's very good at exploiting and extracting from students, from outright stealing their research, to swooping in to ensure he assumes credit and notoriety for any work they do.

This substack scratches the surface of his horrible treatment of students. Doing a Master's, PhD, or Postdoc in science is already extremely challenging and exhausting on its own. It's even worse when your PI, rather than provide you with resources and training, does absolutely nothing but travel on personal trips and steal research. If he does do something to help you, he uses that as a bargaining chip to get you to do something for him or someone else outside of your job scope or duty.

These former members of the lab bravely came out to protect future students and collaborators, Akito is now retaliating against them. Please help by sharing and spreading the word.

https://michaelbalter.substack.com/p/another-toxic-lab-akito-kawahara

I’m still thinking about going full speed ahead on my PhD plans next year. I’ve already started the process. My question is, what do we do now, especially to protect ourselves against Trump and the incoming fascist regime? Would going back to school even be worth it at this point? I’m thinking about pivoting to nursing, mainly because when proj2025 gets implemented, I could lose my current job and a lot of jobs in my field (public health) would be eliminated due to the dissolution of the NIH and CDC.

Hello and thank you to whoever takes the time to read this. I decidedly haven't beaten the autism allegations and it can make it difficult to acquire important things like internships and jobs. I'm actually okay at interviews, but I really struggle with formal networking at say, job fairs and info sessions.

All that to say, I'm at this info seminar for a pharma internship. There's like five students including me (all girls) there's four reps (two men, two women). At the end of their spiel they open up for questions and I give Q2.

Me: So I'm a graduate student working in foundational research with a broad range of technical expertise. How do you think I should frame my resume to best align with your company?

Rep1: well you shouldn't be changing your resume for our company or any company. You just highlight your skills and passions and if you make it to the interview, talk about your project there. Rep 2: unfortunately a lot of students take it hard when they don't get called to interview and we just didn't see an alignment with their resume and our projects that year, and they shouldn't. Rep 3: you shouldn't weigh technical expertise so heavily. The best interns have passion, curiosity, and want to be in industry, which matters way more. Rep 4: yeah, it definitely can be unfortunate if we don't recognize your resume as aligned with our projects. Just highlight the skills you feel strongest in and most confident about so you can shine in your interview! Rep 1: yeah, I'd hate for you to lie about what skills you have on your resume. That just wastes everyone's time. —— I didn't say anything while they all answered/escalated. Was this a bad question? Am I screwed if any of them see my application?

Chat, am I cooked?

Hi! I’ve been a member of ladies of science for over a decade, but for almost all of that time, I have no longer identified as a woman (I am nonbinary, but did my PhD while still identifying as a woman — mostly because at the time I did not have a word for my feelings on gender). I have medically transitioned to an extent, though I am almost always she/her’d by basically everyone, including most colleagues who have only ever known me since being “out” (I exclusively use they/them pronouns). That to say, I am read as and treated as a woman, and I don’t find my experience any better than I did prior to coming out. What I now lack in men constantly hitting on me, I make up for in the ultra weird fetishes of people once they’ve had a drink (now I get lots of weird things about my genitals that people think are okay to speak aloud). And I occasionally get some wild transphobia to boot.

Anyway, there’s tons of networking things for “women in science” and I never know if I should go or even if I would be welcome. I don’t want to go and have people assume I don’t actually care about my gender identity. But also, I feel lonely? I only know one other out trans / nonbinary faculty member at my institution besides myself and they are more established whereas I am still trying to get my foot in the door. At the very least, I very much feel equally minoritized as I did when I was presenting as a cis woman, and isn’t the point of these networking events to help people who receive gender and sex based discrimination achieve mentorship, connections, etc?

Anyway I guess since I still lurk here I thought I would ask for thoughts. Thanks if you read this far!

TL;DR: nonbinary, but frequently read as a woman despite masculinizing medical transition. Lonely in my field as my gender. Should I or should I not consider “women in science” networking events?

Hey y’all! Just thought I’d see if anyone was attending ASMCUE next weekend. First timer here! Super excited and would love to make some friends while there!

Hey ladies-

What bags are we using for conferences? Should I bring my regular school backpack (it’s professional) or switch to a more professional tote? It will be an out-of-state conference if that matters.

Hello ladies! Sorry, not sure how to phrase the question.

I'm an American researcher currently living abroad, and I'm fielding a lot of concerns following the election. A lot of my colleagues are expressing (imo, incredibly valid) fears and distress. I'm being asked general questions like "How can we also transfer abroad?" or "What is this going to mean for the fellowship I have in 2025 at [US Institute]?". However, some of these concerns are shaped around what this is going to mean specifically for women, queer, or other marginalized members of the community. There's a sense of distrust around asking these questions openly.

My heart truly breaks for them. Some of these are questions I can answer, or have resources for. But right now it seems like what would help best is directing this into some kind of community. Some kind of online group where resources and conversations like this are going to be possible to share with some level of discretion.

Does anyone know if there are communities organising like this?

If not, would anyone be interested in joining one?