This came over the AWIS Washington Wire today:
University of Oregon professor Geri Richmond has reported mentorship successes in the journal Nature. Nine out of 10 women who have taken workshops aimed at helping them improve their careers report reduced workplace stress as a result. Richmond said, "Achieving success in science is challenging enough without the gender biases that negatively impact these women's careers." For more on these workshops directed at women, visit this site.
Zuska gives three MAJOR cheers to Geri Richmond and her COACh workshops. This oustanding chemistry professor is not waiting around for things to change. She's not seduced by the 30-year-old promises of "things are changing, it just takes time, women just have to work their way up through the ranks, we just have to wait till the old guys retire and the younger more progressive guys get in there, the women postdocs and assistant profs haven't moved up the ladder yet, it just takes time, we are working on it, we are really committed to increasing diversity, of course we'd love to hire a woman/black/hispanic/Native American professor but they are just so hard to find/they don't want to come here/we don't want to lower our standards, these things take time, we are committed to diversity..."
Bleah. Somebody bring me a bucket.
No, Geri Richmond is not waiting around for the Old Boys to take care of things for her and the other women. She has developed her very own Old Girls Network and dammit, it's working.
That is why she is an official member of Zuska's Hall of Heroines. Along with Debra Rolison, who coined the phrase, "Isn't a Millenium of Affirmative Action for White Men Sufficient?"
A little anger with the status quo can go a long way. Zuska says: less polite patience, more uppity action.
12:15:04 PM
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