On My Mind...

What's on my mind this week? Well, it was the Olympics, for most of the week. Then Wednesday's horrific school shooting in Florida crowded all of my other thoughts out. The inhumanity of the murders themselves is mirrored in the unwillingness of too many of our lawmakers to act to prevent crimes like these from taking place again. Please hold them accountable. 
But, earlier in the week, quite a few things caught my eye about women, the workplace, and women in the workplace.

1) The Atlantic has taken concrete steps to improve the gender balance of the people they interview for their stories. The New York Times considers what's behind the gender balance to begin with. 

2) The myth of the "good girl" who's bad with money. 

3) On a lighter note, 26 women talk about mistakes they made at work, from botched travel arrangements to accidentally slicing off a toe. (Yikes!) 

4) The case for bragging.

5) This woman is teaching her two young daughters to be rude

6) I love watching the Winter Olympics, and few people have embodied the best of the games like badass, 17-year-old, gold-medal-winning, snowboarder Chloe Kim. 

Chloe Kim.JPG

On My Mind...

Did you participate in one of last Saturday’s women’s marches? I wasn’t able to go, but it was exciting to learn that this year’s march in Chicago, where I live, was even bigger than last year’s. I love seeing the creative, funny, poignant, powerful signs that marchers create, and the original work that artists create for the marches.

This was my favorite art commemorating the Women's March this year. Shyama Golden shared her thoughts behind this image of activists for women's rights, past and present: "The women’s movement is intertwined with civil rights, and to me it’s ab…

This was my favorite art commemorating the Women's March this year. Shyama Golden shared her thoughts behind this image of activists for women's rights, past and present: "The women’s movement is intertwined with civil rights, and to me it’s about equality and giving all people a fair chance. Specifically, this means representation of women in positions of power and working to unlearn biases against women. It also means solidarity, both among women and together with other groups who are fighting for equality.”

1)  Maia Weinstock published her annual in memoriam column for Scientific American of notable women in STEM who have passed away in the past year. I was only familiar with a few of the women on the list; it was cool to learn more about their contributions to neuroscience, aerospace, math, and more.

2)  This week also marked the passing of groundbreaking science fiction writer Ursula LeGuin at 88. Our friend Monica Byrne shared a bit about LeGuin’s impact on her own career on twitter.

3) Rosie the Riveter has become a ubiquitous image; Leslie Knope dressed as her for Halloween, an updated version was a magazine cover about last year’s women’s march. But who’s the “real” Rosie the Riveter? The name Rosie comes from a song and was named for Rosalind P. Walter, whose name you might recognize if you watch a lot of PBS. (She became a major benefactor.) Norman Rockwell modeled his version on Mary Doyle Keefe. But the “We Can Do It” Rosie, Naomi Parker Fraley, passed away at 96 earlier this week. Her obituary serves as a mini-history lesson of Rosie the Riveter and a glimpse into the work women did supporting the war effort during World War II.

Image via time.com

Image via time.com

4) Have you ever heard of Georgia Gilmore? Neither had I until I read this story on NPR about the Montgomery, Alabama "cook, midwife and activist whose secret kitchen fed the civil rights movement." Her story is as important as it is unknown. She organized other women who cooked for civil rights activists, and the money they raised helped fund alternative transportation during the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

5) In more current events, I loved this story about Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer teaming up to ensure that Spencer’s pay would be equal to Chastain’s for a movie they’re starring in. Women of color are typically paid significantly less than white women, who are in turn paid less than white men. Just talking about what they were getting paid created the opportunity for Chastain and Spencer to work together for parity.

On My Mind...

It’s the start of a new year. I had planned to post about things I’m looking forward to in 2018. But the year’s gotten off to kind of a rough start. We had a death in my family earlier this week, and it feels like lots of little things have been going wrong on top of that.  (For example, I wrote this whole post out yesterday then my web browser crashed before I saved it. Then I knocked a glass off my sink and it shattered in my bathtub. Neither is a big deal, but, just, ugh.)

Nevertheless, even in the midst of bad news both personal and in the news, there are always things going on that bring some cheer or encouragement…

1) One of my favorite things to read every January is the New York Times list of “52 Places to Visit in 2018.” I love learning about new places, and get a little thrill when I see a place I’m planning to go. (I have a trip to New Orleans planned for later this year!) This year, the Times is sending one lucky writer to ALL 52 places! Writer Jada Yuan submitted the winning application to travel the world this year, and will write stories about each of the places on this year’s list. I can’t wait to follow along on her adventures!

2) Friend of GLYandM, face of The Brain Scoop, and all-around shining star Emily Graslie just launched a new podcast, ExploreAStory, which features stories of “people who work behind-the-scenes at natural history museums and the scientists who are making new and exciting discoveries about our world every day.”

3) If you’re looking for a new job in the new year, check out these five questions to ask in an interview. It’s so easy in a job search to focus entirely on getting hired, it’s easy to forget that you should be looking for a job that’s a good fit for you and your goals.

4) On the subject of careers, I’m always fascinated by the relationship between careers and the rest of someone’s life. This essay about how a management consulting career has let the author pursue her other career as a writer for decades. I love how this shows that there’s no one way to pursue something you care about.

5) If you’re hunkering down this weekend- it’s still super cold here- you can check out The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy Series, for FREE on Amazon this weekend. Rachel Brosnahan plays a young woman who launches a stand-up comedy career in the late 1950s by being blunt, incisive, and, most of all, herself.

6) Even if you didn’t catch Oprah’s speech at the Golden Globes on Sunday, you’ve probably seen snippets of it or seen quotes from the speech all over Instagram this week. The whole speech is really moving, and worth watching. (I don’t know how the audience wasn’t in tears listening to it.)