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Dis(credit): Erasure and Scrutiny of Women in STEM by Donna Riley (Purdue University)

Oct 29, 2020 - 3:00 PM
to Oct 29, 2020 - 4:00 PM
Dr. Donna Riley, Purdue University

At this virtual presentation sponsored by the  ADVANCE Midwest Partnership program, Dr. Donna Riley, Kamyar Haghighi Head of the School of Engineering Education, Purdue University, will discuss how patterns of increased scrutiny and omissions are impacting women in STEM. Please RSVP. The presentation starts at 3:00 PM (CDT)/4:00 PM (EDT) on Zoom. Recording of the presentation is available upon request by contacting dwwahl at iastate.edu.

Women in STEM face simultaneous invisibility and hypervisibility in settings of all types across academe. Over time, patterns of omission in citation or ideas unacknowledged in meetings have a cumulative effect. Many consequential decisions from grant funding to hiring to tenure and promotion rely formally or informally on these inequitable patterns of recognition and reward.  At the same time women are frequently subjected to increased scrutiny in evaluation and review, from hiring and job performance to funding and publication. Increasingly women in STEM are subjected to targeted harassment via social media that can traumatize scholars, their families, and colleagues. Women’s experiences of invisibility and hypervisibility are shaped by race, class, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, immigration status, and other types of difference, producing distinct inequitable effects. How can we work together to disrupt these patterns of inequity that mark sexist academic STEM cultures? How can we come to terms with root causes in order to structure processes and practices to more effectively counter systemic injustice?