De-escalating conflict

Catherine Gerard, Director of the Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration (PARCC), Maxwell School of Syracuse University, offered a mini-workshop on Managing Conflict and Communication to the faculty and staff involved in SU WiSE/AVANCE.  We cannot control the other person, so she gives advice to help you remain civil (so you don't become the difficult person!) and ensure the other person feels heard, so that a dialogue is possible.  Much of this is accomplished through "Reflective Listening", Query, Assertion, and Anchoring.  These techniques do rely on you being the bigger person, so if you are not willing to assume that role, a different workshop is in order.

Many in the session were concerned with the wording of  "I feel [unappreciated, put upon, even farther behind schedule, etc]....when...."  relaying concern that while it is more approachable language, it also puts you in too vulnerable a position by admitting something so human (feminine?) as emotions (which have no place in science or the workplace, after all).  Plus, it kinda feels like pandering.  Doesn't "I am..." get to that same point?  She and a clinician participant disagreed--note how "kinda feels" qualifies the pandering comment as an interpretation or an assumption, not as fact, so its less accusing or threatening.  They also noted that 1) it takes practice to use this phrasing comfortably and 2) if we truly know it would distract from the point with that particular conflict monger, adapt the wording accordingly.

Hiring biases, seminar plug

It was suggested a few years back that a way to encourage diversity among the faculty and staff ranks was to provide campus-wide 'diversity training', starting with those that serve on search committees.  'Of course the students need it, but its not necessary for the employees.'  'The problem's been solved.' 'Pshaw-Surely an institution of higher learning is free of those pesky biases that affect lessor institutions!'   'We hire the best (based on what?)'

A recent double-blind study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences   and summarized in Science indicates that those suggesting this training really were on to something.  Despite identical, save the gender of the applicant, resumes, the women applying for lab manager position were viewed as less competent and worth less mentoring and lower starting salaries if they were offered positions.  (Addendum 2014:  Similarly,women and people of color with impeccably written letters of introduction and interest were systematically less likely to get responses from the prospective major professors than were white men, and less likely to get positive responses from those that did reply.

The implications of less mentoring is access to fewer resources. Lower starting salaries translate to lower lifetime earnings (every subsequent raise is based on that initial salary), long before accounting for any gaps due to childrearing or eldercare, which still tend to be born primarily by women.   They are also more likely to be impacted by the second shift and face obstacles as a trailing a spouse. 

ESFWOMEN

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SEMINAR AND SPEAKER SERIES

If you would like to discuss the body of literature one hour a week next semester (Tues, 3:30-4:30)--please consider joining or suggesting your students enroll in the 1 credit seminar 'FOR 496/797 ENVRN CAREER STRATEGIES/WOMEN #43773. The current iteration offered by Diane Kuehn, has the bones of the original seminar (WiSE Professions) developed by Robin Hoffman, Therese Donovan and Ruth Yanai in 1999, but continues to grow with the input of other faculty (Janine DeBaise, Sharon Moran) and with the written and verbal evaluations provided by each class.    The class and listserv are not just for women, but are 'safe spaces' for women to discuss issues and career development strategies.  For more information:  http://www.esf.edu/womenscaucus/Seminar.htm

Heather
________________________
Heather Engelman
Coordinator, Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Speaker Series & Take our Kids to Work Day
Research Analyst, Forest Ecology Laboratory, Forest and Natural Resources Management
B9 Marshall Hall (Mailing:  105 Marshall Hall)
SUNY ESF
1 Forestry Dr.
Syracuse, NY 13210
http://www.esf.edu/womenscaucus

The princess in me

Disney's idea of a princess usually disappoints, as they so often require the prince to save or complete them.  Yes, yes, I know that their films are entertainment, but when the only characters that are female also happen to be simpering and weak and shallow and naive and so, well, very cartoonish.... and there are few better alternatives (thank you, Sesame Street!), I can't help but wish they'd use their market share to battle, rather than perpetuate, stereotypes.  But this is an affirmation of value and strength--of real girls, of every color and ability.  Their clips far outnumber and outshine those of storybook characters interspersed among them.  Now, if they can just bring this to their characters (and have more girl characters all around.)

--he

A community of women, and some sweets for the cause

The Women of the University Community is celebrating 85 years on the University Hill!  Read its 'herstory' at http://news.syr.edu/women-of-the-university-community-2/ and plan to attend next week's annual meet and greet "Fall Gathering," Wednesday, Oct. 10, from 5-7 p.m. at the home of longtime member Judy Cavanagh, 1350 Westmoreland Ave. Please RSVP to Tina Casella at 315-622-4138 or cscasell@syr.edu FB

Also note that in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and "Baking for Breast Cancer", a number of CNY restaurants are featuring a special dessert, the proceeds of which will benefit Positively Pink Packages, a local nonprofit organization that provides free care packages and vital resources to newly-diagnosed breast-cancer patients. 

Equals

I can't believe it took a year and a half for this to make it around to my facebook newsfeed.

For more info about the competition in which this clip was entered.

Local History: Women's Baseball leauge reunites in Syracuse!

I am so sorry I missed this. So cool that it was picked up by the AP and Title 9 Sports!  
complete text

The Title IX Olympics?

Title IX, which promotes gender equity in sports and other programs, recently celebrated its 40th anniversary.  Is it a coincidence that in the same year, every national Olympic committee sent women to the Olympic Games.  And women have done well, with US, Chinese and Russian women winning more gold and more medals than their powerhouse male teammates.    Will this be the legacy of the 2012 games?  Or the twitterverse commentary blasting All-Around gold medal gymnast's Gabby Douglas's hair (praytell, how do the haters manage their sweaty locks?) and admonishing British Clean and jerk weightlifting recordholder Zoe Smith for looking like a "bloke."

Zoe's responds that  "We actually would rather be attractive to people who aren’t closed-minded and ignorant. Crazy, eh?! We, as any women with an ounce of self-confidence would, prefer our men to be confident enough in themselves to not feel emasculated by the fact that we aren’t weak and feeble."  Complete text

I'd bet a whole lot of smart women--scientists, engineers, and environmental professionals among them--feel the same way.

RIP Sally

Sally Ride inspired so many.  Full Text  Thankfully, Sally Ride Science lives on.

Local history: In Syracuse, it was one small change for infants, one large step toward equality

When I clicked on this story, I assumed it would be about today's Great Cloth Diaper Change, an  attempt to break the world record for simultaneous cloth diaper changes.  However, it addressed access to changing table; the first suit addressing the lack of facilities for fathers (and the assumption that only moms did this particular familial duty) was in 1985, about our very own Syracuse Hancock Airport.  Read on.
Published in the Post-Standard, April 21, 2012
 By Karen DeCrow, Contributing writer
Syracuse was ahead of the game!
In Miami, Fla., 165 diaper changing stations are being built in men’s rooms and common areas of city properties. A story by Charles Rabin in The Miami Herald reported city commissioners voted in February to spend $45,000 to install baby diaper-changing stations in men’s rooms across the city, “after an hour of heated argument between the measure’s sponsor and the disgruntled police union president.”
The model: a Syracuse lawsuit filed in federal court, establishing that changing diapers is no longer women’s work (Northern District of New York).
My client, the Fathers’ Rights Association of New York State, brought the Syracuse Department of Aviation to U.S. District Court in July 1985. In September 1986, thanks to a decision by the late Judge Howard Munson, there was a celebration of the opening of a gender-free fathers’ and mothers’  nursery, with a ribbon cutting and the changing of two infants by their fathers; one the son of the assistant corporation counsel, the other the son of the president of the fathers’ rights group.
Our lawsuit addressed: sex discrimination against men who were denied equal facilities; sex discrimination against women, who were assumed to have the total responsibility for children while traveling; and the rights of children to be cared for by both parents.

FULL STORY

Karen DeCrow, an attorney and author from Jamesville, NY, is in the National Women's Hall of Fame and writes an occasional column in The Post-Standard.

Dr. Lillian Na’ai Alessa Speaks on Water, Technology, and Sustainability

As part of the course requirements for FOR797, students share responsibility for reporting on the WiSE Professions Speaker Series.  The following was prepared by Emily Handelman, Dana Burke, and Elysa Smigielski.

Dr. Alessa brought humans to the forefront in her discussion on water and technology on Tuesday, April 17, 2012, where she not only brought powerful ideas on sustainability but also enthusiasm and dry wit that kept the audience engaged and enlightened.

            Dr. Alessa works within the framework of Social Ecological Systems, a concept noting that humans exist within a biophysical environment. Humans, she said, are the drivers of land use change and have kept sustainability in an ivory tower, but also possess the power to work with and adapt to the changing environment. Her talk centered around the concept of adaptation and its use in addressing the problem of climate change.  In particular, she framed her discussion around the use of place based knowledge, the use of humans as environmental sensors, and the use of technology as a tool, rather than the means to an end.   Technology, she said, cannot be engineered to apply everywhere.  Thus, by relying on our human sensors – our expert observers and note-takers of places in which they live – researchers and scientists can better use this place based knowledge in developing solutions and policies.  

Alessa’s talk concluded with a discussion of some of the tools she and her team have developed in order to document and analyze placed based knowledge. In particular, she explained a software program called Architecture for Integrated and Dynamic Data Analysis (AIDA) that collects social data information in order to map social values across the landscape. She noted that AIDA is in essence a social networking tool for information.

Dr. Lilian Na’ia Alessa is the Director of the Resilience and Adaptive Management Group at the University of Alaska in Anchorage. Dr. Alessa received her B.S. in general biology and her Ph.D. in cell biology from the University of British Columbia. She has also served on the board of the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States. This talk was a joint presentation of  SUNY ESF’s Women in Scientific and Environmental Professions Seminar Series and the Cross-Disciplinary Seminar in Hydrology and Biogeochemical Processes.   The seminar was sponsored by the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, the Graduate Student Association, and the ESF Women’s Caucus.