Below we highlight published items of interest to current/future postdocs and other PhD professionals. We are especially interested in drawing attention to policy issues, minority postdocs, and national/regional postdoc diversity affinity groups. For busy PhD professionals, we will scan the diversity literature and news outlets.
Today, there are 170 President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program scientists and scholars among UC faculty. Roughly 75 percent of all participants have gone on to tenure track positions at a college or university, with more than half joining a UC campus.
The scientists evaluating [the] applications (which were identical in every way except the gender of the 'submitter') rated the male student more competent, more likely to be hired, deserving of a better salary, and worth spending more time mentoring. The gaps were significant.
Ignoring small actions or comments is not effective. It does nothing to educate the members about the experiences of members who are not in the majority, it sends a strong signal that small acts based in unexamined bias are OK, and minority members may disengage from the group.
Constructing an IDP is a four-step process with myIDP. The first step is to evaluate your own skills, values, and interests. The second step is to use this self-assessment as a guide for exploring and evaluating career opportunities in your field and, ultimately, identifying your preferred career, as well as an alternative option that you think you'd be happy with. Step three is to set some specific goals to prepare you for the career paths to which you aspire. After discussing these goals and outlining strategies with your primary mentor, it's time to put the plan into place. You do this in step four.
...the outcomes of the approximately 350 postdocs who have completed the IRACDA program:... 69% took jobs in academia, nearly three-quarters of which were at teaching- focused colleges and minority institutions. Twenty-one percent found work at government agencies, nonprofits, or other educational organizations, and 10% took jobs in industry. ...IRACDA postdocs are finding academic jobs at a higher rate than their peers who do traditional postdocs.
The event...helped to steel participants to get involved in Wikipedia in the face of what can be an off-putting culture...women comprise fewer than 15% of the site's editors.
...minority faculty members experience stress more frequently than their White peers, largely because of perceived discrimination and worries about personal finance
A 2002 report for the University of California President's Summit on Faculty Gender Equity found that while women were earning 45 percent of the Ph.D.'s in biology, women represented only 37 percent of postdoctoral appointments in biology (and 37 percent of the new-faculty appointments). That indicates a major leak in the pipeline between Ph.D. achievement and postdoctoral appointments.
[For example,] excessive focus on male research subjects and definition of cardiovascular diseases as "male" led to underdiagnosis and undertreatment of the disease in women.
Prominent researcher's Facebook post calling women at a neuroscience conference 'unattractive,' and lamenting lack of 'super model types,' sets off debate about sexism in science.