Why so slow? and Women Don't Ask

Upon arrival at WISE FPP's Power, Effectiveness and Gender session with Virginia Valian, participants received a list of suggested topics for discussion, and then she tailored the discussion to our particular concerns.  Handwritten notes, plus her suggestions on all the areas, recommended web sites, readings,  and selected annotations are linked (PDF).

I wasn't able to stay for the whole public lecture on Why so slow? The advancement of women later, but some of my notes are also included (see p.6.  Based the chapter she annotated, I left before she discussed institutional structure. 

Also, the Women in Environmental Careers class met remotely with Sara Lashever (co-author of Women don't Ask with Linda Babcock) earlier in that week. Some highlights from that discussion are at the very end (p.9-10).

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Summary: Influences on Scientists' Career Pathways, Kenefic and Stout, April 28

Drs. Laura Kenefic (MS '95) & Susan Stout (MS '84), USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Bradley ME and Irvine, PA, spoke about the USFS Civil Rights Special Project:  Influences on Scientists' Career Pathways on April 28 in a bonus installment of the Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Speaker Series.  The presentation was sponsored by the Department of Forest and Natural Resources Management, the US Forest Service, and the ESF Women's Caucus.  The primary goals of the USFS Civil Rights Special Project are to understand the diverse career pathways of scientists in the Northern Research Station, and to examine the role, if any, that gender plays in the scientists definitions, perceptions, and attainment of career goals. Drs. Laura Kenefic and Susan Stout, and their colleagues Cherie LeBlanc Fisher and Christel Kern surveyed scientists about career pathways, impact of mentoring, changes in family, and measures of job satisfaction.

In this project, they surveyed employees that remained in the pipeline; they did not talk to former employees to determine if they left for professional advancement, or for personal reasons.  In general, they had a good response rate across the board, with the exception of younger male employees.  They found that women were only slightly more likely to perceive a negative or neutral influence of childcare on career trajectory compared to men, but men and women were increasingly concerned about their families and eldercare. They also confirmed that men and women considered different factors when rating job satisfaction—women value flexibility, while men prefer security.  Women also value work relationships (a strong work ethic, collaboration and teamwork) more than their male counterparts. Also, the Forest Service’s official mentoring program is not perceived as satisfactory and is not well used, but overall, other mentors have had a positive influence on the individual researchers careers.  And, those that employees (men and women) who answered that they had been subject to discrimination and harassment were far more likely to think that they had made the wrong career choice and were unsatisfied with the balance between personal and professional lives. 

They have a lot of data still to analyze, including qualitative data that may shed more light on some of their results.  The reiterated that they only surveyed current employees, and that because at least one of the researchers would know each respondent, they chose to generalize some of the questions in order to maintain anonymity.

Please note that while the Speaker Series has concluded for this year, we are looking for suggestions for programs for the upcoming academic year.  For more information, please visit http://www.esf.edu/womenscaucus/speakers.htm

Dr. Kenefic sent this summary prior to their visit:
There were few significant differences among the career pathways that men and women scientists followed.

Most respondents reported having at least one mentor or career advocate.  Of these, 46% of female respondents and 30% of male respondents reported having at least one female mentor or career advocate.  

There were no gender differences in the ways that marital status, becoming a parent, parenting, or having eldercare responsibilities affected self-perceived career success.  There was a difference (though not statistically significant) between men and women in the influence of parenting young children; a higher proportion of women believed that this had a negative influence on their career, while a higher proportion of men believed that this had been a positive influence on their career.

Women were significantly more likely than men to feel that their gender influenced the way they felt about their job, career and self-perception of career satisfaction, and this influence was likely to be mixed or positive.  There were no statistically significant differences between men and women in the self-perceived role of gender in getting a job or in career advancement.

A greater proportion of women then men said that job flexibility is “very important” to their personal definition of career success; men were more likely than women to say that job security is “very important” to their personal definition of career success.

Women were more likely than men to rate “a strong work ethic,” “an applied science orientation,” “relationships with managers,” “relationships with NGOs,” and “teamwork” as “very important."  Men were more likely than women to rate participating in civil rights activities as “unimportant;” about half of all respondents rated this as “sometimes important, sometimes unimportant.”

Deer & Forests in Pennsylvania: Surprises from Long-term Research

Dr. Susan Stout (MS '84), Research Project Leader, USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station, Irvine, PA, Deer & Forests in Pennsylvania: Surprises from Long-term Research, Sponsored by the Department of Forest and Natural Resources Management and the ESF Alumni Association.  Dr. Stout discussed the effect of deer on forest regeneration and development, and the methods used to educate the public and modify the behavior of hunters to improve participation at voluntary check stations, and other practices.  A joint presentation of the Women in Scientific Professions and the Forest and Natural Resources Management Departmental Seminar.

Fog, clouds and the maintenance of ecosystems: mist connections?

Dr. Kathleen Weathers, Senior Scientist, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, NY and Program Director, Ecosystem Science Cluster, National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA, Fog, clouds and the maintenance of ecosystems:  mist connections?  Sponsored by the Cross-Disciplinary Seminar in Hydrological and Biogeochemical Processes, Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, and the ESF Women's Caucus, with assistance from the National Science Foundation. Dr. Weathers shared the processes used to quantify and incorporate an often overlooked process (fog or mist as opposed to liquid precipitation and snowpack) in nutrient cycling, and demonstrated the importance of using these measures to develop an accurate picture of ecosystem functioning.    A joint presentation of the Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions and the  Cross-Disciplinary seminar in Hydrological and Biogeochemical Processes.

Dr. Meredith Gore Speaks on Coupling Human and Natural Systems in Madagascar Through Conservation Criminology

by Caitlin M. Snyder

            Dr. Meredith L. Gore, Assistant Professor, Michigan State University’s Department of Fisheries and Wildlife & School of Criminal Justice in East Lansing, Michigan, introduced an interdisciplinary framework for mitigating relationships between wildlife and humans called  conservation criminology in a presentation held at SUNY ESF on Thursday, March 4, 2010. She presented her seminar “From lemurs to livelihoods: What can conservation criminology offer for resolving environmental risks in Madagascar?” as part of the Standing on the Shoulders of Giants, Adaptive Peaks, and Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Speaker Series sponsored by the ESF Graduate Student Association, Department of Environmental & Forest Biology, and Women's Caucus.

            Dr. Gore began by describing her personal background and experiences in her area of expertise, and posed questions to the audience about public perceptions of environmental behavior and risk, decision-making and policy, and the coexistence of wildlife and people. Using a case study, she described the socioeconomic and environmental status of both villages and ecosystems of Madagascar, and focused on lemur conservation to illustrate the need to ameliorate the imminent biodiversity crisis.

            Despite numerous challenges facing the island of Madagascar (e.g., poverty, lack of infrastructure, corrupt governance, disenfranchisement, and climate barriers), Dr. Gore expressed promise by suggesting a novel, integrated approach that combines aspects of natural resource management, criminal justice, and risk and decision science. She discussed methods and solutions to environmental risks associated with human-wildlife interactions by providing critical inspection of the key characteristics, scope, and assumptions of this approach dubbed conservation criminology. Although there are many strengths and weaknesses still to overcome with its application, conservation criminology may be an opportunity to draw disciplines together and apply a progressive approach to research, teaching, and management of certain environmental risks. Dr. Gore provided a conceptual framework for conservation criminology in Madagascar, and discussed the advantages that it could bring such as better decision making, stakeholder engagement, law enforcement, and conservation of endemic biodiversity. Together, conservation biology and criminal justice have the ability to foster theoretical development and a positive interaction among livelihoods and lemurs.

            Dr. Gore's formal training is in the human dimensions of wildlife management, and environment and resource policy. She is a member of the Environmental Science and Policy Program (ESPP), serves as core faculty with the Center for Advanced International Development (CASID), and collaborates with scholars in the MSU Risk Research Initiative and Office of Study Abroad. She also serves as core faculty for the Conservation Criminology certificate program, offered jointly by the Department of Fisheries & Wildlife and School of Criminal Justice. Her research interests focus on public perceptions of wildlife and environmental risk, human-wildlife conflict, community-based natural resource management, human dimensions of natural resource management, conservation criminology, and program evaluation.  To learn more about her research, visit http://www.conservationcriminology.msu.edu.

            For upcoming events in the Women in Scientific Environmental Professions Speaker Series, please visit:  http://www.esf.edu/womenscaucus/speaker.htm.

Ecofeminism

Sex and nature sell—perfume, vehicles, cigarettes.   Janine DeBaise opened the discussion of Ecofemisim with a file of collected magazine clippings.  Most of the skin shown was that of women (although we did see one advertisement featuring a scantily clad man).  We found two extremes:  a video console ad that claimed “there is a beautiful naked women” under game screenshots strategically placed over portions of her body, and a Maidenform ad with photos of a baby chicken, a doll, a tomato and a fox, and text that reads "While the images used to describe women are simple and obvious, women themselves rarely are."  4WD vehicles were shown in places vehicles really shouldn’t be (wilderness areas, far off-road, mostly with solitary men conquering nature). These wilderness areas were also the backdrop of many of the perfume ads—“perhaps to make them seem more natural?” we asked.  High heels seemed out of place in some of the ads, too, but perhaps not more so than the rest of the attire featured (particularly one set in the desert where the models donned only their skivvies and heels.)

It’s been a while since Janine sorted through the file, and she expected many ads to be dated—but the only ones that seemed to be were the Marlboro men, rugged, solitary characters whose product simply doesn’t get advertised in the same venue anymore.  How does this compare to the ads we see on television today?  Do any cleaning products commercials feature men?  Not really—its women doing the cleaning, using sprays and candles to make their houses smell homier.  Sex still sells:   a new line of lingerie offers to increase bust size by 2 cups!   At least we haven’t seen bikini-clad beer bimbos lately, and women are much more likely to be portrayed as Moms than as vacuous or a shrew—although those ads still do make an appearance.  We also contrasted the happy, carefree models wearing pajamas to the severe expressions on the lingerie models.  To us, this said:  pajamas are comfortable; that lingerie, perhaps not.  Be comfortable, be happy.  Probably not the message some of the advertisers hoped we’d take home.

"Like Blood from our Veins:" Perspectives on water in post-communist Poland. October 20, 2009.

Dr. Sharon Moran, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Studies, briefly discussed Poland's rich history, highlights of two of her projects, and invited participants to sample meats, bread and sweets representative of the country's cuisine.

Poland's transition to a market economy and a democratic government, creative/energetic/idealistic leaders in 1999, coupled with a main watershed covering 53% of the country and most of its industrial center, and that it was the last unregulated in Europe made the country very open for Sharon Moran's doctoral research.  The country's location between Germany and Russia also means that the borders have shifted a lot over the years.  Despite this, there is a great sense of national pride--especially for the communal opposition of Nazi occupiers.  Reconstruction in Warsaw used authentic building techniques so that new building are almost indistinguishable from the originals.  New signs now mark the site of the Warsaw ghetto that housed Polish Jews during that time.

Municipal Waste Management during the Early Part of the transition from a welfaristic to a neoliberal orientation.  She found great variation in the incentives to improve water across the country:  better quality for profit, a brewer subsidizing projects, commercial interests.

Local perception of drinking water:  Warsaw has cheap filtered tap water, commercial bottled water is available but not frequently purchased.  It also has >100 deep wells throughout the cite fed by a common aquifer, drilled by the government in late 50s in  so that good quality drinking water would be available should bombing resume.  Workers would bottle their own and bring this great tasting water home.  Many of the wellhouses are open 24/7.  Wells are tested periodically, and local variations due affect quality and individual wells may be closed temporarily.She expected that this practice developed because it was cheaper than commercial bottled water.  Instead, she heard that the water tastes wonderful, and that its safe (respondents would know if it were otherwise, and "they" would close).  Further, most of the interviewees were unaware that the filtered river water from their taps was actually still contaminated. 

Lunchtime Learning Seminars are offered by the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

Henry speaks: Mercury in the Onondaga Lake Remedy?

As part of the requirements of FOR496/797 Environmental Career Strategies for Women, students share responsibility for reporting on the presentations in the Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Speaker Series.  The following was prepared by Liz Canal, Rebecca Maurer, and Shavaun Jenkins.

Dr. Betsy Henry, Senior Managing Scientist, E^xponent, Schenectady, launched SUNY ESF’s 2009 Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Speaker Series with  Mercury in the Onondaga Lake Remedy on February 24. The Department of Chemistry and the ESF Women’s Caucus jointly sponsored the seminar.

Dr. Henry discussed the background of mercury contamination including the global mercury cycle over the last 20 years, US fish consumption advisories, analysis of mercury in water, and the mercury transformation processes in aquatic systems.  Attention was then focused on the history of mercury bioaccumulation in Onondaga Lake and the remedial investigation that took place from 1992-2001, as well E^xponent’s involvement with that process.  

Dr. Henry is working with Honeywell International (formerly AlliedSignal) and the DEC to clean up Allied’s mass depositing of mercury over the years. Mercury had been used as an electrode in the production of chlorine, caustic potash (KOH) and caustic soda (NaOH); briny groundwater made Syracuse uniquely suited for these industries.  Elemental mercury is of particular concern because of its potential to methylate in non-oxygen environments such as deep water and sediment.  Methylmercury is a soluable neurotoxin that bioaccumulates, becoming more concentrated as larger fish eat smaller ones. 

Henry explained that Honeywell, DEC & EPA had been working toward “a phase of a consent decree” on how the lake could be cleaned.  The data took over a decade to collect and assisted in creating a feasibility study, where all the alternatives to cleaning the lake were evaluated. January 2007 marked the beginning of the five year design schedule that would allow the cleaning of the sediment from the lake to actually begin.

The first step in remediation was to decrease external sources of mercury contamination from former Allied Signal, particularly the former LCP Bridge Street Plant, Metropolitan Syracuse Wastewater Treatment Plant (METRO), and groundwater infiltration in 2007.  Soil washing has separated more than 7 tons of elemental mercury from 85 tons of processed soil.  To stop groundwater infiltration, a barrier wall was set up from 35 to 70 feet in depth.  The groundwater that would have entered Onondaga Lake is now pumped to a treatment plant.  The next step in the Remedy will be elimination of mercury through dredging and capping.   “Natural recovery” will be monitored for the two-thirds of the lake bottom where clean lake sediment is burying the contaminated waste sediment.  Additions of oxygen and nitrate are planned to delay the production of additional methylmercury, and Onondaga County is spending $500 million to stop polluting the lake with sewage by 2012. These steps are designed to meet the remedial goal of reducing mercury concentration in sediment, water, and fish tissue to levels that are “protective of human health and environment.”   

In 2012 they will “get inside the lake to address internal processes” including resuspension of in-lake waste deposits, which are primarily made up of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃); methane gas ebullition, poor water diffusion, and methyl mercury production.

Dr. Henry’s experience includes management of investigations, risk assessment, and agency negotiations at some of the most prominent mercury sites in the country. With a broad background in the transport and fate of contaminants in the environment, Dr. Henry specialty is in the transport, fate, and bioaccumulation of mercury in both terrestrial and aquatic systems. More recently, she has worked closely with engineers during remedial design to understand and address risks associated with mercury contamination.

Dr. Henry received her B.S. in agronomy from Colorado State University and her Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Harvard University.  In addition to her position with E^xponent, she serves as president of ReTree Schenectady, a non-profit organization dedicated to the planting, care, and conservation of current and future generations of trees in the City of Schenectady. 

 For more information about the Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Speaker Series, please visit http://www.esf.edu/womenscaucus.

Chemical Remediation of Contaminants in Water and Soil using Fenton Advanced Oxidation Systems

As part of the requirements for FOR 496/797 Environmental Career Strategies for Women, students share the responsiblity for reporting on the speakers in the Women in Environmental Professions Speaker Series.  The following was prepared by Shavaun Jenkins and Christina Quinn.

 

Dr. Ann Lemley, a Professor in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University, concluded SUNY ESF’s 2009 Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Speaker Series with a talk entitled Chemical Remediation of Contaminants in Water and Soil using Fenton Advanced Oxidation Systems on April 7. The Department of Chemistry and the ESF Women’s Caucus co-sponsored the seminar.

Dr. Lemley discussed her current research concerning the use of chemical means for the degradation of contaminants in water and soil. Contaminated soils pose potentially serious threats to surface and ground water quality, particularly when contaminant concentrations are high due to accidental spills or discharges. Therefore, the goal of her work is to develop a practical system for the removal or treatment of contaminants, including pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and other organics, from water and soil systems.

Beginning with a brief introduction into the background of pesticide contamination and the complications associated with its remediation, Dr. Lemley described how advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) offer fast and effective techniques for remediation. Specifically, her lab focuses on the application of Fenton reactions (Fe²⁺ + H₂O₂ àFe³⁺ + OH^- + *OH) to degrade contaminants in water and soil/clay slurries through an indirect electrochemical method, known as Anodic Fenton treatment (AFT), that generates Fe²⁺ via electrolysis. This treatment offers several advantages including the avoidance of problems with hygroscopic salts, reducing the need for reactions at extreme pH’s, and the ability to control the release of reagents and measure the *OH radical reaction rates.

            Within Dr. Lemley’s research group, an AFT kinetic model has been developed and, using competitive kinetics, optimized to allow for the measure of concentrations of coexisting contaminants. Furthermore, this model has been revised to accommodate nitrogen-containing pesticides (tricosenes).  Dr. Lemley concluded her presentation with an illustration of the application of the AFT kinetic model in soil slurries and layered clays. Through the use of X-ray diffraction, the adsorption of several probe chemicals, including mecoprop (anionic), carbaryl (neutral) and paraquat (cationic) was measured along with their subsequent degradation rate by AFT. While anionic and neutral chemicals can be effectively and completely degraded by AFT, the removal of cationic chemicals in soil/clay may prove more difficult due to strong electrochemical interactions. Future research will be focused on developing electrochemical systems for different applied situations and the study of a variety of other contaminants, including animals antibiotics, and their rate of degradation and subsequent degradation products.

Dr. Lemley received her B.A. in Chemistry and Education from St. John’s University, and both her Master’s and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Cornell University.  Currently, Dr. Lemley is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Fiber Science & Apparel Design, working in the Field of Environmental Toxicology, at Cornell University. She is also on the Editorial Board of several journals (including the Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, and Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part A) and active with the NYSTAR Center for Environmental Quality centered at Syracuse University.

For more information about events sponsored by the ESF Women’s Caucus, please visit http://www.esf.edu/womenscaucus.

NSF: options and opportunities, & Women in Science: issues and advances,

Kathleen Weathers, Program Director, Ecosystem Science Cluster, National Science Foundation, recommended applying for opportunities listed with NSF, and looking for those described in "Dear Colleague" letters.  She also shared her work on scientific culture.