More women scientists work as professors today than at any time in history. But they’re still underpaid relative to their male colleagues with similar publication records, according to a study of more than 2300 science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) faculty members. The findings are “concerning,” says Bruce Weinberg, a professor of economics at Ohio State University, Columbus, who has studied gender bias in STEM but wasn’t involved in the new study. “One wants people to be compensated comparably for comparable work.” Overall, faculty members with stronger publication records were paid more, the researchers found based on publicly available faculty salary data from 17 research-intensive U.S. universities. But for each increment of gain in their h-index - a metric of scholarly productivity that reflects how many papers a researcher has published and how many times those papers have been cited - women saw less of a bump in their pay compared with their male colleagues, according to the study, which is in press at Scientometrics and was posted online as a preprint last week. Among faculty members with a relatively high h-index of 49, for instance, women’s salaries were roughly $6000 less than their male counterparts. It’s a shortfall that can really add up “when you look at it over a career,” says study author Christiane Spitzmüller, vice provost for academic affairs and strategy at the University of California, Merced.

We are experiencing unprecedented levels of stress, exhaustion, and burnout. And we've all bought into the story that we need to choose between meaningful success and our well-being. But as Nataly Kogan will talk about in this Fireside Chat, we must change this mindset and recognize that cultivating our well-being is not a soft skill – it's non-negotiable if we want to do the work we love in a sustainable way. As a CEO, venture capitalist, and refugee, Nataly pushed herself beyond her limit for decades, choosing success at the expense of her emotional and mental health. Her own burnout, which almost cost her the company she built, her family and herself, taught her a powerful lesson: Being a martyr and putting yourself and your emotional fitness at the bottom of your list doesn't just hurt you. It hurts your ability to do great work and be a force of good in the lives of others. Nataly brings a fundamentally new and practical approach to familiar concepts like self-care and emotional fitness. She combines research about the human brain with immediately accessible practices to help you better manage your energy and strengthen your emotional fitness so you can do the work you love without burning out.

According to a new EEOC report, women hold just 29% of federal STEM jobs and 26% of supervisory and leadership roles. This translates to a gender-based pay gap. The report also states that 14% of women in the federal STEM workforce filed formal complaints on equality issues in fiscal year 2019. The under-representation of women among leaders has contributed to a gender-based pay gap. On average, women in federal research jobs earned just over US$84,600 per year - about $4,300 less than men earned. Men averaged higher salaries than did women in science, engineering and maths. In technology, women out-earned men by about $2,000 (just under $86,600 annually, compared with men’s pay of just under $84,600), partly because the relatively few women in that field hold a disproportionate number of senior positions.

The Program Development Grant (PDG) Committee invites you to consider applying for a PDG to financially support your outreach and professional development activities! Micro-grants are available to support the strategic activities of SWE Organizations. If you are interested in financially supporting your outreach and professional activities you can apply for a program development grant. Applications due is October 22nd 2022.

AWIS is pleased to announce a new institutional partnership with Michigan State University, one of the world’s leading research universities. All qualifying MSU students and postdoctoral researchers will now have access to AWIS’ community of STEM professionals and industry partners. AWIS’ mission aligns with MSU’s mission to push the boundaries of discovery, expand opportunity and advance equity to make a better, safer, healthier world for all. It also aligns with many of the goals of our university-wide strategic plan and academic strategic plan. With our shared commitments to promoting equity and inclusion, mentoring, and leadership opportunities for women in science, I am confident that MSU’s community of scholars will benefit from the broad range of resources and programming that AWIS brings to this partnership.

New article on SciArt that captures artistic beauty, communicates scientific concepts, and raises visibility for social issues in science. We often hear about the stark differences between art and science, that some people are analytical while others are freethinkers, with little room to mix,” according to the exhibit founders. In reality, artists and scientists actually have a lot in common. Scientists often spend hours taking, creating, and editing beautiful images, figures, and videos, in the same way an artist labors over a new idea or piece. Both are seeking to capture truths about the world around us. Indeed, while science and art are often portrayed as polar opposites or as mutually exclusive, they actually have fundamental similarities that make them compatible, despite their apparent differences. Because of their synergy, the two fields have melded over time to become known as “SciArt” — or #SciArt, a popular hashtag linking together a vast online world of creativity.

Since 2018, Dr. Alexandra A. Phillips has been highlighting diverse WomenInSTEM through Women Doing Science. With almost 100K followers on Instagram, she has now published a paper analyzing the impact of profiling WomenInScience on social media. Find out what she learned!

Explore timely topics with exiting thought leaders who will engage, inform and inspire you on the AWIS journey What's Next. First webinar Leveraging Social Media for Professional Opportunities starts on 17th August.

The Collegiate Leadership Institute’s (CLI) overarching goal is to equip collegiate members with the skills, knowledge, and leadership abilities that will enable them to become global leaders in their engineering careers and serve as a future pipeline for leaders in the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). To do this, the program aims to motivate, inspire, and support SWE collegiate members to successfully transition to the engineering workforce by providing key practices that will accelerate and enhance the success of collegiate to entering the engineering workforce.

Don't miss out on this wonderful professional development opportunity! SWE's Executive Leadership Program (eXXec) focuses on empowering women who aspire to executive status. Find out more about the program and register.