The conversations continue: JMP women in STEM

[#1]

How delightful that last year’s online Discovery Summit Europe’s Bright Minds Mingle session on women in STEM spawned a global JMP book club (and a Women in STEM Discussions page on the JMP Community)! The first book selected was The Confidence Code by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman. More books were proposed for the second round, and two were so popular we covered both in multiple groups to accommodate different time zones.

I invite others who participated in these book discussions to share any comments on either book. We are grateful to have had such interest! I plan to read The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down, which is also a beautiful book that sounds well worth reading (so many books, and life is short!).

The group I facilitated chose British zoologist Lucy Cooke’s most recent book, which is hilariously entertaining and endlessly fascinating (so much so that I had to buy her previous book, The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildl...!). Our group had thought-provoking conversations about the importance of diversity in science to better understand our complex world. 

For so long, science was dominated by men. We all have biases, but Cooke rightly points out that with such gender uniformity, many didn’t think to ask questions, for example, that women would ask. Science now has some brilliant women advancing our knowledge, dispelling previous “bunkum” to use a Briticism from Cooke, and shining light to remove some of the long shadow Darwinian-perpetuated thinking cast. For those who like to compare book covers, here is the UK image:

We look forward to another (in-person this time) Women in STEM gathering at Discovery Summit Europe in Sitges for a Women in STEM lunch on March 8, which happens to be International Women’s Day. We hope you can join for conversations around the theme for this year, embrace equity, and any other ways we can support Women in STEM.

For those who can’t be in sunny Spain with us (where I might add, we have two brilliant women presenting: Hannah Fry and Suzana Herculano-Houzel—and there is still time to register!), we will have an online Discovery Summit Europe with another Bright Minds Mingle session on Women in STEM on March 22 where more conversations celebrating women’s achievements and supporting their work will take place. Join us for both if you can! And help us select some more books to discuss!