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Hello everyone. Hope you had a strident day being strident.
The Chief Scientist hates it when women in science talk about inequality because it detracts from "progress."
49% of undergrad STEMM students are women. Only 21% of senior professors of STEMM are women. #StridentWomenpic.twitter.com/orCs1j4cQE
Apologies I wasn't able to do a full transcript of this last night, I was too busy being strident, but let's break down the Chief Scientist's comments, right after #StridentWomen shared harrowing stories of discrimination in science organisations (TW SH: http://radio.abc.net.au/programitem/pgE6JgBMDV?play=true …)pic.twitter.com/quLsPPbReq
<Women talk about inequity> Chief Scientist: "I would urge that everybody acknowledges the progress. I personally find it frustrating if I hear something strident complaining about the situation today without acknowledging that there has been progress..." #StridentWomenpic.twitter.com/pIG6TPEYZP
Chief Scientist: "Acknowledging progress doesn't mean you're ready to give up. We also need to also think about the way we look at the numbers to make sure we're not setting up the situation such that we're misunderstanding the nature of the problem." #StridentWomenpic.twitter.com/K5LdovK7IM
Chief Scientist: "STEM doesn't formally include life sciences. And I can tell you there's a chance through the university, through the medical faculty graduations, I'm mostly shaking female hands" #StridentWomen know better than to use anecdote to negate evidence but please go onpic.twitter.com/Q537sWpWie
Chief Scientist: "So in the life sciences, medicine, a HUGE percentage of the graduates coming through are female. In engineering it's more extreme the other way around. But we've got imbalances within professions we have to decide is that NECESSARILY A BAD THING?" #StridentWomenpic.twitter.com/15qugpoJ8D
Sometimes my #StridentWomen mind can't decide if inequality is *necessarily* a bad thing, but here's the numbers.
In medical sciences & health, 72% of undergrads are women. But only 33% of senior professors are women. Don't want to be strident, but that's the opposite of "huge"pic.twitter.com/28E4nARFZ8
But the Chief Scientist is shaking so many lady hands, that must mean progress has been made? #StridentWomen always bringing the mood down, going public after being told to stay silent on sexual harassment & "treat everybody as a potential attacker"https://www.theage.com.au/national/senior-surgeon-gabrielle-mcmullin-stands-by-advice-for-female-doctors-to-stay-silent-on-sex-abuse-20150307-13xzog.html …
The Chief Scientist urges us to "look at the numbers" and stop being #StridentWomen. Here's more numbers: half of 3,500 surgeons surveyed have experienced harassment & bullying. 1 in 3 women have been sexually harassed. Keep telling those progress stories!https://www.smh.com.au/national/bullying-endemic-among-surgeons-but-victims-too-scared-to-speak-up-report-finds-20150909-gjiuxl.html …
Wait a minute - all that rife harassment & discrimination was in 2015. So much progress since then! Right?
By 2018, 20% of surgeons have failed to complete compulsory anti-sexual harassment training implemented to address 2015 findings. #StridentWomenhttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-09/one-fifth-of-surgeons-yet-to-complete-online-harassment-training/9314650 …
Okay that's medicine. The Chief Scientist mentioned life sciences too. Yep, they have gender parity in junior roles but as I showed earlier, less than one third of senior leaders are women. Other #StridentWomen research shows same inequity in industry https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2017/09/20/why-too-few-women-life-sciences-bad-for-business/crkrbriWLw2IKJMoIzCjgI/story.html …
So that's the story of numbers. Senior White men may want women to focus on progress, but that's not our narrative. #StridentWomen can & do share triumphs, but we should be free to talk about discrimination without the most influential scientist in the country being disparaging.pic.twitter.com/lKXnYtyXzp
When I hear strident - I always get a visual of tridents - and think perhaps we as Women in STEM (including in the life sciences/health professions!) should be issued with them (to go with our clearly strident natures)http://devonkedevmahadev.wikia.com/wiki/File:Shailputri_Parvati_Holding_a_Trident.png …
#StridentWomen on strike with tridents... 
Agree! Thank you for your ongoing work @OtherSociology. I’m also concerned with the added sexualisation & stereotypes as applied to women of colour & Indigenous women. There’s also even less women of colour who are professors & less Indigenous women professors. #StridentWomen
So “strident” means loud and harsh; grating, a synonym being “shrill”. Seems like poor language to choose. How often would such language be used to describe a man’s communication style.
Proud to be described as strident if it means keeping company with #stridentwomen
Since when did life sciences not count as STEM??? Here I was thinking biology & biochemistry etc was science.
I heard it too ... cringe worthy and so very disappointing #really?
What % of STEMM undergrads were women in the years when these senior professors were undergrads? This would give us a better idea whether the problem is one of current-day discrimination, or merely of time, would it not?
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