The Mary Sue

[The Mary Sue]

Why is Leslie Jones’ character the only non-scientist in the group? Why is she getting framed as the ‘street smart’ character — the one who supposedly doesn’t have as much technological know-how as the other three women on the team? In other words, why is the 2016 Ghostbusters rehashing the exact same tropes as the original Ghostbusters did with Ernie Hudson’s character?

So … Why Is Patty the Only Non-Scientist in the New Ghostbusters? (x)

Originally posted by tearthatcherryout

[The Mary Sue]

themarysue.com

Survey: Staggering Majority of Women in Tech Told That They’re Being “Too Aggressive”

If tech is supposed to be an example of how great our futures could be, then its industry should also reflect that. But it doesn't. And this is why it fails.

Tech industry followers, have you experienced this too?

[The Mary Sue]

themarysue.com

4 Reasons SHIELD’s Daisy Johnson Is a Great Multidimensional Representation of Women in Tech

Daisy isn’t altogether free from tropes (pretty much no character is), but she breaks the mold in a number of ways and sets a good precedent for more strong representations of women who work with computers.

[The Mary Sue]

themarysue.com

Know a Girl Who Loves STEM? Jewelbots Programmable Friendship Bracelets Launch Today

Today is the launch of Jewelbots, programmable friendship bracelets that teaches their wearers to communicate using Bluetooth and IFTTT technology.

YES GOOD.

[The Mary Sue]

“Emmy was born to mathematician Max Noether (which is pronounced “nerder,” making her way cooler than originally anticipated) in 1882, when women were not typically encouraged to do things that didn’t involve embroidery or the kitchen. After studying math at a German university, Emmy completed her dissertation in 1907 (she would later call her thesis “crap,” because she is One Of Us); but you think math dudes were cool with that? OBV NO they weren’t – are you paying attention to, like, all of history? – so they made Emmy work at the university while paying her LITERALLY ZERO DOLLARS for SEVEN WHOLE YEARS. I barely got through a month-long unpaid internship and Emmy lasted seven years while surrounded by German math trolls? Every award to her. 

In 1915, Emmy was invited to join another German university as a lecturer but – surprise! – more math dudes were like “Nope,” and they made her lecture for FOUR MORE YEARS under her male supervisor’s name. ARE YOU GETTING JUST HOW GOOD EMMY WAS AT MATH? Most of us struggled to survive twelfth-grade calculus without having at least one meltdown, while this lady is like “I will math for free and feel humiliated the whole time but that’s how much I love math you guys don’t even worry about it.” Emmy’s supervisor was ahead of his time and didn’t understand why his math bros were so against Emmy, saying “We are a university, not a bath house”; Emmy, taking this as a challenge, then started swimming at a MEN-ONLY POOL because she was a stone-cold bad-ass.”

- Celebrate Emmy Noether’s Birthday With A Brief History Of Her EXTREME MATH RADNESS | The Mary Sue

[The Mary Sue]

A confluence of industry events has brought this issue to the center stage. From the threats and harassments that have characterized the debate in the gaming world, to the publication of hiring data and diversity statistics in the tech industry, this is a highly relevant issue and one that we all need to address,” he said in the speech. “I’m here to say tonight, it’s time to step up and do more. It’s not good enough to say we value diversity and then have our workplaces and our industry not reflect the full availability and talent pool of women and underrepresented minorities.

Intel Wants Diversity in the Workplace, Puts $300 Million Where Their Mouth Is | The Mary Sue

[The Mary Sue]

“Now, I could point out that one might be able to use this shirt as an example of how women in STEM fields might be made to feel indirectly uncomfortable in a male-dominated working environment despite no overt sexism or harassment being inflicted upon them. But I’m kind of too distracted by how tacky and outright terrible this shirt actually is. Like, seriously, dude. You wore that in public.”

(photo via Twitter)

- Lead ESA Scientist Wears Shirt Covered in Gratuitous Sexy Chicks For Comet Landing Livestream | The Mary Sue

[The Mary Sue]

Ada was born in 1815, the only legitimate child of poet/loveable whack-job Lord Byron (you know, the guy who hung out with Shelley and Keats? And wrote Don Juan and Childe Harold? And then went a bit nuts and tried to take over Greece? Yeah, that guy). Ada never met her father, since he was off being kind of nuts, and her mother was like “Ada, you are ONLY learning MATH and SCIENCE lest you become like your CRAZY FATHER by indulging in EVIL POETRY.”

But you just couldn’t hold Ada down because she did what she wanted to, you know? Ill a bunch as a child (and not like, “the illest” or whatever; like, ACTUALLY sick), Ada spent a lot of time reading (shout-out to frail, shy kids that read a lot of books) and developing her interest in the sciences. But fascinated by stories of her father, Ada wasn’t all about numbers – at 12, she decided that she wanted to fly, and used her wild imagination and scientific know-how to design a pair of mechanical wings, so basically she INVENTED Steampunk. By 18, she was having an affair with her tutor (YEAH SHE DID), but Ada’s mother covered it all up by sending her to court and marrying her off to a Baron, with whom she would have three kids but WHATEVER.

But do you think Ada let the married life slow her down HELL NAW SHE DIDN’T. She loved gambling and parties, and her chillness with dudes meant she was often followed by scandalous gossip (some things never change, amiright?). Obsessed with fairies and the “unseen worlds around us,” Ada would come to describe herself as an “Analyst (& Metaphysician),” studying “poetical science,” and publishing papers about how the brain creates thoughts and how music relates to math. Holy DAMN try to tell me that’s not kick-ass because I WON’T BELIEVE YOU.

- It’s Ada Lovelace Day, So Here’s A Brief History Of Her EXTREME RADNESS | The Mary Sue

[The Mary Sue]

[lastrealindians]

Teen scientist harnesses sun power to help Navajo community

New Mexico teen Raquel Redshirt uses everyday materials and the sun to build solar ovens, fulfilling a Navajo community need and winning an award at the Intel ISEF competition.

Growing up on New Mexico’s Navajo Nation, Raquel Redshirt was well aware of the needs of her community. Many of her impoverished neighbors lacked basics such as electricity, as well as stoves and ovens to cook food.

Though resources in the high desert are limited, Raquel realized one was inexhaustible: the sun. “That’s where I got the idea of building a solar oven,” the teen says.

She researched solar ovens and found that most incorporate mirrors or other expensive materials. Raquel wanted to create a design that anyone could easily afford and replicate, using readily available materials.

READ MORE HERE: http://lrinspire.com/2014/06/19/teen-scientist-harnesses-sun-power-to-help-navajo-community/

[The Mary Sue]

[femmerenaissance]

Vera Rubin (b. 1928)

When Vera Cooper Rubin told her high school physics teacher that she’d been accepted to Vassar, he said, “That’s great. As long as you stay away from science, it should be okay.”

Rubin graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1948, the only astronomy major in her class at Vassar, and went on to receive her master’s from Cornell in 1950 (after being turned away by Princeton because they did not allow women in their astronomy program) and her Ph.D. from Georgetown in 1954. Now a senior researcher at the Carnegie Institute’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Rubin is credited with proving the existence of “dark matter,” or nonluminous mass, and forever altering our notions of the universe. She did so by gathering irrefutable evidence to persuade the astronomical community that galaxies spin at a faster speed than Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation allows. As a result of this finding, astronomers conceded that the universe must be filled with more material than they can see. 

Rubin made a name for herself not only as an astronomer but also as a woman pioneer; she fought through severe criticisms of her work to eventually be elected to the National Academy of Sciences (at the time, only three women astronomers were members) and to win the highest American award in science, the National Medal of Science. Her master’s thesis, presented to a 1950 meeting of the American Astronomical Society, met with severe criticism, and her doctoral thesis was essentially ignored, though her conclusions were later validated. “Fame is fleeting,” Rubin said when she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. “My numbers mean more to me than my name. If astronomers are still using my data years from now, that’s my greatest compliment.”

 Sources:

1. http://innovators.vassar.edu/innovator.html?id=68; http://science.vassar.edu/women/

2. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/45424

[ladieslovescience]

A+ YES. Fabulous ladies getting it DONE.

LLS

[fireandwonder]

do you realize how many scifi stories she is indirectly responsible for?  She discovered the inspiration for Dust in The Golden Compass.

[themarysue]

Another female scientist whose discoveries have been all over Cosmos without a mention of her life. 

[The Mary Sue]

[hackersofny]

TL;DR This hacker spent some time at the UN. Turns out their stack is as old as government itself.

"I started coding because my Neopets guild needed a web page and there was no one who knew how to code, go figure. I built all of their websites in really dinky HTML, CSS, and PHP. It was an exciting time on the Internet. I met someone who learned to code building Sailor Moon fan sites. Nerds, right?

I worked at the UN briefly for two years and oh my god - everything is so old there, like their processes are ancient. Their events person was sending out emails by hand; manually, one by one to thousands of people, like thousands of people. Imagine an event hosted by the UN. Imagine how many people are invited to that. I told her, ‘It’s called MailChimp. It will change your life.’”

Cathy is currently hacking on Wikitongues and leads software product at Coalition. She will be featured in the Wall Street Journal’s upcoming documentary about women in technology, and she has a knack for modernizing companies’ outdated technology stacks.

Wikitongues | Coalition

[trashy-prince]

WHOa!! CATHY WTF

[The Mary Sue]

[ricktimus]

Neil deGrasse Tyson is not impressed with all your sexism.

[thisfeliciaday]

Oh yeahhhh

[themarysue]

All props to Cosmos, but we still had to wait eight episodes to get a mention of a single female scientist. 

[The Mary Sue]

[womenrockscience]

Meet Mary Sherman Morgan, rocket scientist, munitions and chemical engineer and one of the most instrumental players in the launch of America’s first satellite, Explorer I (shown above). According to her colleagues she “single-handedly saved America’s space programme”.

Mary started out life as a poor farm girl in North Dakota, her parents chose not to educate her by choice so that she could work on the farm. Eventually, she managed to graduate high school and then ran away from home to go to college and study chemical engineering.

During her studies, WWII broke out and there was a shortage of chemists in the country. Mary was offered a “Top Secret” job at a factory and had to accept without being told what the factory made or what her job would be. It turned out it was a munitions factory – Mary was put in charge of the manufacture of 3 different types of explosive. In her tenure the factory produced over 1 billion pounds of ordnance for WWII.

With the war behind her and after graduating her degree she started working for Rocketdyne under Dr Silverman. In the 1950’s the US was in a race to launch its first satellite into space. American rockets were just not successful, they either couldn’t accelerate to the necessary speed or would blow up on the launch pad. Out of dozens of other engineers Dr Silverman put Mary in charge of solving this problem. She invented Hydyne, a brand new and powerful liquid fuel. In 1958 Explorer I was successfully launched into space using Jupiter-C rockets powered by Hydyne fuel.

Shortly after this success, Mary left the world of work to become a stay at home mum. Much of her work was top secret and she was a very private person - she actively avoided the press. Barely anyone knew about what she did for the space programme.  It was only at her funeral did her colleagues begin to share her story. “Mary single-handedly saved America’s space programme” he said “and nobody knows but a handful of old men”

Sources: Sherman-Morgan, BBC

[The Mary Sue]

[womenrockscience]

Rocket Girls: A Five day series into legends of aerospace engineering

[The Mary Sue]

[badass-bharat-deafmuslimpunkstar]

An Indian woman, a Japanese woman, and a Syrian woman, all training to be doctors at Women’s Medical College of Philadelphia, 1880s. (Image courtesy Legacy Center, Drexel University College of Medicine Archives, Philadelphia, PA. Image #p0103) (x)

[ami-angelwings]

The Indian woman, Dr. Anandi Gopal Joshi, was the first Indian woman to earn a degree in Western medicine, and also believed to be the first Hindu woman to set foot on American soil.

The Japanese woman, Dr. Kei Okami, was the first Japanese woman to obtain a degree in Western Medicine.

The Syrian woman is Dr. Sabat Islambooly.  Her name is spelled incorrectly on that photograph. 

For those interested, here’s more information on other women of color who attended and graduated from Women’s Medical College of Philadelphia in the past, with a focus on the Japanese-American women they accepted during the US WW2 internment of Japanese-Americans.