麻豆视频

Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016, was not a good day for 麻豆视频 alums Jane Zelikova and Kelly Ramirez.

The two women woke to a world in which the president-elect of the United States was the same man whose campaign had been rife with, as Zelikova put it,听鈥渂latant sexism, criminal disrespect of women, attacks on minorities, immigrants, and the educated 鈥榚lite.鈥欌��

Zelikova (PhDEBio鈥�08), then a fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science working on climate change issues in Washington, D.C., and Ramirez (PhDEBio鈥�12), a postdoctoral scholar at the听Netherlands Institute of Ecology, had been friends since meeting in the ecology and evolutionary biology PhD program at CU Boulder. Devastated by the election results, they struck up a four-way text conversation with two other CU colleagues.

鈥淲e were upset,鈥� Ramirez says. 鈥淏ut our anger and frustration quickly turned into (a desire) to act.鈥� Within 12 hours, they had sent an email to a couple dozen women scientists in their circle, in an effort to begin organizing and taking action.

They didn鈥檛 know they鈥檇 just taken the first steps in creating听, now a global grassroots organization of more than 20,000 women in science, technology, engineering and math fields that seeks to transform leadership, diversity and public engagement in the sciences.听

鈥淚 remember thinking, 鈥楽omeone is going to step up to do something,鈥� then thinking, 鈥極h no! We are the ones!鈥欌�� says Zelikova, now a senior scientist with California-based听, a non-governmental climate-solutions organization.

Hoping to keep up the momentum, they scheduled a meetup at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco in early December 2016. That gathering drew not just younger women scientists, but some of the top women in science.

鈥淲e had this awesome network of women built up,鈥� Ramirez says. It was then just a matter of, 鈥淚 know five people I could message right now to do this one thing. We continue today; we鈥檝e just grown the network.鈥�

500 Women Scientists has encouraged women to create independent local chapters they call 鈥減ods.鈥� They provide support, and Zelikova鈥攚ho has been profiled by publications such as Mother Jones and the High Country News鈥攈as visited many of the pods, but the agenda is up to local members.听

Both at the pod and national levels, the organization responds in the media to issues affecting science, whether it鈥檚 allegations of sexual misconduct, the rights of transgender people or a policy debate in Washington.

Countering old-school notions that scientists cannot鈥攐r perhaps should not鈥攂e advocates, 500 Women Scientists has vigorously promoted not just upholding science, but also recognizing that it has not been immune from inequality and injustice.

鈥淔ighting for social justice is not outside the role of scientists, nor is it something that we can sideline until science is no longer under threat,鈥� Zelikova and Ramirez wrote with four colleagues in the听.听

鈥淒efending the rights of minority groups and eliminating all forms of discrimination are essential for our work. Advocating for science requires us to advocate for women. Advocating for women means advocating for gender and racial justice. It means advancing immigrant, disability and LGBTQIA rights, religious freedom, and challenging all forms of discrimination and inequality.鈥�

Science, Zelikova says, has always been political, and scientists should not be silent for fear of alienating the public, politicians or colleagues. In a December blog post she co-wrote for Carbon 180, Zelikova noted that scientists have a long history of important advocacy, such as when nuclear physicists spoke out against nuclear proliferation in the 1980s.

If scientists don鈥檛 speak out, Zelikova says, they risk leaving interpretation of their work up to others, who may not always be interested in accurately representing it.

鈥淲ho better to translate that nuance and explain what it means than the people doing the work?鈥� she says.听

500 Women Scientists is ardently pro-science, yet doesn鈥檛 shy from criticizing an institution that has not always been a shining example to the world. Created by white, European men of the Enlightenment, science has often not made room for women and minorities, effectively shutting out their different perspectives, Zelikova says.

The organization鈥檚 vision statement reads, in part, 鈥淚n this new era of anti-science and misinformation, we as women scientists re-affirm our commitment to build a more inclusive society and scientific enterprise.鈥�

鈥淲e had a leadership team meeting in the fall of 2018 and someone said something that blew me away: The institutions (of science) are working exactly how they were intended to. The exclusivity and privilege that are preventing people from succeeding in science are a feature, not a bug,鈥� she says.听

鈥淓uropean men had very different notions of who should be doing science and what science is. It is a human institution not built with equity in mind.鈥�

500 Women Scientists is a solutions-driven organization, supported by private donations and volunteers. The organization has ambitious plans for the future, including the creation of the听, recognizing women of color taking leadership roles in STEM fields. The organization is raising funds for the first cohort, which will be introduced in 2020, and has also received funding to revamp its听platform, which helps to bring women鈥檚 voices into the public sphere.听

It also has plans to launch a 鈥渟cience corps鈥� that embeds women scientists in communities for a week at a time as a kind of 鈥渄omestic science diplomacy,鈥� Zelikova says, as a counter force to a wave of anti-science鈥攁nd anti-scientist鈥攕entiment that has influenced millions of Americans, from the White House down.听

鈥淭his is not to indoctrinate people, but to start having those conversations,鈥� she says. 鈥淚f you know people who do science, it鈥檚 harder to vilify them. It makes it harder to accept certain lies as truth if your life experience includes interactions with scientists.鈥�

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