The women scienceblogging revolution

Wednesday, January 26th 2011

The women scienceblogging revolution

At least, that’s what it feels like to me.

You’ve commented on my last post, you’ve written your own posts, you’ve tweeted and retweeted. You’ve been insightful, brilliant, and kind. You have been allies to each other. You haven’t fed the trolls.

The people of the science blogosphere are good, thoughtful people. If a real conversation about eliminating sexism was going to happen anywhere, in a way that emboldened women and made allies of men, it was going to be here. I think the combination of meeting in person, having those many women-only conversations, having such smart people in the women scienceblogging panel, and bringing the conversation back online, to where we all met in the first place, has been really good for us.

So I want to share two last things. First, I’d like to link to as many posts people have written on this topic as possible. If you don’t see your post here, link to it in the comments and I’ll put it up here. (I looked at hits in my statcounter to come up with the list, so I could have easily missed yours.)

Second, I am slowly (because it is the start of the semester and I have a million other writing projects far more important for tenure than this blog) writing a post reflecting on the MLK, Jr session I attended at Science Online 2011. I hope that as we continue talking and reflecting on issues of women in the science blogosphere, we broaden the conversation to talk about race, ethnicity, sexuality, and other related identities that are not represented or supported as strongly as they could be.

Posts related to #scio11 or the #scio11 conversation

The biology files: Women who write about science

Observations of a nerd: I’ve never been very good at hiding

The Intersection: Sex in the Blogosphere

This is Serious Monkey Business: Raison d’etre of the female undergraduate primatology blogger

Almost Diamonds: Hidden Women, Hidden Writers

The Happy Scientist: Just Ask

Fumbling Towards Tenure Track: Self-promotion tour 2011

Neuron Culture: Hey You Men Who Yell “Nice Tits”: STFU

Neuron Culture: Guest post (my original post, crossposted)

Blue Lab Coats: Linky linky… blogging and doing science while female

Neuroanthropology: Wednesday Round Up #139 (the post gets a mention here)

Science in the Triangle: Why scientists (should) blog

The Loom Room: Are men who do textiles superheroes or spoilt? (a post about a totally different field, but a commenter brings up our conversation)

Only the Educated are Free: How I cannot fight sexism because I am afraid of men

Neuroanthropology: Women and Science Blogging

Outdoor Science: Why are female science writers invisible?

Scicurious: Where are the female science bloggers?

Neurotypical? On self-promotion

One Small Step: Some thoughts, a poll, and an invitation

Denim and Tweet: We need to hear what we’d rather not

Almost Diamonds: Writers don’t spring from Zeus’s forehead either

Athene Donald: Unwritten Rules

The Intersection: Rising against the wind

Nature Network: Women in science – where are we now?

Alice Rose Bell: The politics of online science

Thus Spake Zuska: But I want to earn everything all on my own merits! #scio11

Broader posts about gender and scienceblogging: more must-reads

There and (hopefully) back again: Gender and blogging (and everything else)

Purely Anecdotal: The good

The Incubator: A pregnant postdoc in the 21st century

Child’s Play: On becoming Birkin and letting go of Gainsbourg

Scicurious: Let’s talk about sex in science

Young Female Scientist: Be the visible bitch

The Hermitage: How gaming makes me a better graduate student: gear

10 Comments →

10 Comments

PA said:

What is written and said about women really does matter. I wrote this just after a dark time, one marked my my own doubt, and that fueled by my all-male group who hinted to me that perhaps it was my gender that was the problem.

http://www.purelyanecdotal.com/2007/03/04/the-good/
Daniel Lende said:

Kate, thanks for making this list – ongoing, I hope!

I've been thinking about how easy it is to link to you (and Julienne, etc.) as anthropologists, which does have a rich tradition of women working in the field, versus science blogging, where Greg and I started together, I admired Vaughan Bell's work at Mind Hacks, and so forth.

When this issue came back up in the fall, with real concerns over the gender ratios in the new networks, it was so easy to create that short post about you – here's Kate, a great anthropologist blogging online.

Yet I don't see that point as easy to make in science blogging, as Stephanie over at Almost Diamonds has highlighted – Ed Yong and Carl Zimmer, or even Bora, rather than a list of prominent women.

So I'm really happy to see such attention being paid to this issue. It's definitely needed.
Chia-Yi said:

Will slowly read through all of these, thanks!
Just an interesting bit, from your last post you mentioned that Ed Yong said that he's only gotten requests from men to promote their blogs, etc. I took a quick look at who I follow on Twitter, and they were mostly men. What women do you follow if you have Twitter? I'd love to add them to my testosterone-filled feed.
Thanks!
Scicurious said:

Chia-Yi, there are tons of female science bloggers on twitter, a good list can be found to both their blogs and Twitter feeds here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/the-lay-scientist/2010/sep/16/women-science-blogging

And Kate herself started a Friendfeed for female science bloggers here: http://friendfeed.com/women-scienceblogs
KBHC said:

Hi Chia-Yi, Sci's pointers are good. Also just look at the list who I follow (and who Sci follows, or any other woman scienceblogger) and you'll likely get ideas for other ladies that kick butt. 🙂
Chia-Yi said:

Thanks for the links!
😀
Anna said:

It's so nice that women can have a place to write and share knowledge about the things they know so well. Or personal experiences that we can share. I'm so glad we live in a time where it's acceptable and encouraged that woman be informed and speak their minds.
Zuska said:

Great panel, great post (this one and the one preceding). I wrote a little something on my blog you may want to link. http://scientopia.org/blogs/thusspakezuska/2011/01/28/but-i-want-to-earn-everything-all-on-my-own-merits-scio11/ I'm really enjoying your blogging this month – you are always great, but really kicking ass lately.
KBHC said:

Me too Anna! This conversation all 'round the blogosphere has been very inspiring.

Zuska — oops, I did read that and thought I linked it, but I only threw in the link you mention in that post — I will fix this now.

And thanks — that means a lot coming from one of my blog heroes!
bryan chappelle said:

Hello,

I think that what you said about women in science is so true. I wish sometimes that we can have more African American women also opening up and blogging about their passion. Just seeing women in general blogging about science should inspire the young female who thinks about going into this field but maybe scared because they feel the male pressure.

PA said:

What is written and said about women really does matter. I wrote this just after a dark time, one marked my my own doubt, and that fueled by my all-male group who hinted to me that perhaps it was my gender that was the problem.

http://www.purelyanecdotal.com/2007/03/04/the-good/

Daniel Lende said:

Kate, thanks for making this list – ongoing, I hope!

I've been thinking about how easy it is to link to you (and Julienne, etc.) as anthropologists, which does have a rich tradition of women working in the field, versus science blogging, where Greg and I started together, I admired Vaughan Bell's work at Mind Hacks, and so forth.

When this issue came back up in the fall, with real concerns over the gender ratios in the new networks, it was so easy to create that short post about you – here's Kate, a great anthropologist blogging online.

Yet I don't see that point as easy to make in science blogging, as Stephanie over at Almost Diamonds has highlighted – Ed Yong and Carl Zimmer, or even Bora, rather than a list of prominent women.

So I'm really happy to see such attention being paid to this issue. It's definitely needed.

Chia-Yi said:

Will slowly read through all of these, thanks!
Just an interesting bit, from your last post you mentioned that Ed Yong said that he's only gotten requests from men to promote their blogs, etc. I took a quick look at who I follow on Twitter, and they were mostly men. What women do you follow if you have Twitter? I'd love to add them to my testosterone-filled feed.
Thanks!

Scicurious said:

Chia-Yi, there are tons of female science bloggers on twitter, a good list can be found to both their blogs and Twitter feeds here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/the-lay-scientist/2010/sep/16/women-science-blogging

And Kate herself started a Friendfeed for female science bloggers here: http://friendfeed.com/women-scienceblogs

KBHC said:

Hi Chia-Yi, Sci's pointers are good. Also just look at the list who I follow (and who Sci follows, or any other woman scienceblogger) and you'll likely get ideas for other ladies that kick butt. 🙂

Thanks for the links!
😀

Anna said:

It's so nice that women can have a place to write and share knowledge about the things they know so well. Or personal experiences that we can share. I'm so glad we live in a time where it's acceptable and encouraged that woman be informed and speak their minds.

Zuska said:

Great panel, great post (this one and the one preceding). I wrote a little something on my blog you may want to link. http://scientopia.org/blogs/thusspakezuska/2011/01/28/but-i-want-to-earn-everything-all-on-my-own-merits-scio11/ I'm really enjoying your blogging this month – you are always great, but really kicking ass lately.

Me too Anna! This conversation all 'round the blogosphere has been very inspiring.

Zuska — oops, I did read that and thought I linked it, but I only threw in the link you mention in that post — I will fix this now.

And thanks — that means a lot coming from one of my blog heroes!

bryan chappelle said:

Hello,

I think that what you said about women in science is so true. I wish sometimes that we can have more African American women also opening up and blogging about their passion. Just seeing women in general blogging about science should inspire the young female who thinks about going into this field but maybe scared because they feel the male pressure.

Kate Clancy, PhD

Wednesday, January 26th 2011