Shortly after coming home from the International Space Station, NASA's Nicole Mann talked about how she is trying to bring others into the field by sharing her journey. The commander of SpaceX Crew-5 had a "hair situation" on the orbiting complex, she shared during a livestreamed press conference on March 15. Her crewmates could trail Mann via long hair strands accidentally stuck on International Space Station Velcro to where she was working on science in the orbital lab. Mann hadn't grown up expecting to be in space, let alone deal with such microgravity inconveniences, she shared with Space.com. The U.S. Marine aviator was the first Native American woman to leave Earth; Mann is a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in northern California. But after Mann's decades of hard work (and a little luck) got her to the ISS, she went on to spend hours in space talking about her journey from test pilot to space commander with students (including Native American students) around the world.

After debunking many myths around male and female brains, Gina Rippon’s research interests now include gender gaps in science and why they persist, even in allegedly gender-equal societies. Gina Rippon was a paid-up member of the “male-female brain brigade” earlier in her career as a cognitive neuroscientist, but changed tack, she says, after discovering there was not a lot of sound research behind the well-established belief that male and female brains are biologically different. In the fourth episode of this podcast series Tales from the Synapse, Rippon explores the role of social conditioning to explain why boys and girls might respond differently to pink and blue objects, why girls aged nine describe maths “as a boy thing,” and why the same girls shun games that are aimed at children “who are really, really smart.” Rippon, Professor Emeritus of cognitive neuroimaging at Aston University in Birmingham, UK and author of the 2019 book The Gendered Brain , is also interested in why women continue to be under-represented in science even in countries that purport to be gender-equal. Her forthcoming second book investigates why girls and women on the autism spectrum have historically been overlooked. Viewing the condition through a gendered lens hampers our understanding of it, she argues.

JSI is a member of the Athena project consortium fort he implementation of gender equality plans in research organisations. This project has received fuding from European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. The third issue of the Athena project newsletter is now available, which provides information on the events and activities JSI and our project partners have carried out over the past months.

A SWE Global Affiliate is a community of women engineers outside of the United States who wish to expand SWE’s mission. Global Affiliates are local networks that aim to meet the needs of women engineers in their community to help their advancement – whether through organizing professional development events, hosting outreach activities, connecting women with career opportunities, or other activities unique to their area. SWE Global Affiliates may be formed by university students on their campus or by professionals within a geographic area (city, region, or province). Global Affiliates may be made up of SWE members and non-members, and their status as an affiliate allows the group to use the name of the Society for group functions. Once formed, Global Affiliates renew their status and report new leaders annually.

An important part of advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in science is helping to ensure that life events and situations don’t disproportionately affect an individual’s ability to build a successful research career. Unfortunately, a promising scientist’s career path may at times be interrupted by life events such as pregnancy, childbirth, adoption, serious illness, or family caregiving responsibilities. NIH understands that providing support for researchers during critical life events advances a more diverse and creative workforce.The good news is that the NIH Research Continuity and Retention Supplements program is available to help early-career investigators during these crucial life junctures. Two Program Director/Principal Investigator categories are eligible for the continuity and retention supplements program: Mentored career development (K) awardees and First-time recipients of research project grants. The supplemental funding provides flexible support within the scope of the parent project. Funds may be used for additional personnel, computational services, supplies and equipment, or other resources needed to sustain the investigator’s research.

Nora Sun is on a mission to boost girls' access to STEM studies and careers. When Nora Sun was a child, her grandfather created bedtime stories for her about what they called "two galaxy-hopping astronauts." The stories about White Cap and Green Cap - inspired by two Lego figures she played with, one with a white cap, the other a green cap - led Sun to dream of being an astronaut when she grew up. "I relinquished the dream after I discovered that being an astronaut required intense physical training. I am very unathletic," Sun, now 17 and a high school senior, said. But her childhood love for all things science stuck. She lives part-time in Jacksonville with her mother, Yujie Zhao, but attends high school in Chicago where she lives with grandfather Baozheng Zhaoshe and has already made a name for herself as an aspiring research scientist.

Around the world and across history, innovative women have imagined, developed, tested, and perfected their creations, and yet most of us would be hard pressed to name even a single woman inventor. In fact, women inventors are behind many of the products and technologies used every day! From life rafts to disposable diapers to rocket fuel, women have invented amazing things - but they're also responsible for some of the things we use for day to day life. In fact, if you use GPS on your cell phone, turn on windshield wipers when you drive in the rain, or eat a chocolate chip cookie, you can thank the woman behind them! In honor of the remarkable women whose breakthroughs have advanced technology and the ease of our day to day lives, A Mighty Girl is sharing the stories of twenty ingenious women whose inventions have changed the world. Whether they were scribbling designs two centuries ago or are still working today, these clever creators deserve to have their stories told. They've also included a few stories of modern-day Mighty Girls who have taken up the challenge of becoming the inventors of today - and tomorrow.

Meet Dr. Deblina Sarkar, an award-winning innovator. She is an assistant at MIT and fuses ingeneering, applied physics and biology to develop disruptive technologies for nanoelectronic devices and create new paradigms for life-machine symbiosis.

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Archita Khaire. Read her story and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light! Archita is a founder of AIBytes4You, a nonprofit organization that has developed educational programs to provide students the resources, knowledge and opportunities in rapidly emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL). AIBytes4You focuses on educating women of color and minority groups. Archita has a global team of 25 people who have delivered AI/ML courses to 1,500+ students.

Have you learned about "Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Theory?" Author Trinity Richardson's WITI article "Cultural Dimensions - Another Layer of Culture," breaks down the five dimensions to cultures. According to Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Theory, there are five dimensions to cultures. These dimensions all work together to create unique cultures, and while you can look at them separately, when identified as a whole there is a clearer picture of how a culture may operate. The dimensions themselves are individualism vs collectivism, long-term orientation, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity vs femininity. Individualist cultures focus on the concerns and achievements of individuals, while collectivist cultures are concerned with unity and selflessness. In an individualist society, people are expected to have their own beliefs and wants and build a life for themselves based on them. Collectivist cultures focus on a group's needs over an individual's needs. Interconnectedness is valued over independence. Collectivist cultures lean towards a long-term orientation, which values future rewards over present satisfaction.