by Heather Self
5 February 2012 in Associates news
I woke up early a couple of weeks ago and was surprised and delighted to hear Gemma leading the Sunday worship on Radio 4. Sadly I was not quite quick enough to upload a link from iPlayer – it was on 22 Jan
by Louise Pryor
19 December 2011 in Interesting stuff
[Cross posted from Louise Pryor's blog]
The title of this blog is a shameless crib from a recent blog of Athene Donald’s, in which she discusses the Equality Challenge Unit‘s annual survey of statistical information about staff and students in UK universities.
[...] overall 76% of professors are white and male. Such a lack of diversity cannot be healthy. The numbers of BME (black and minority ethnic) staff across the board, male or female, is truly dismal. A mere 5.3% of academic staff are non-white UK nationals and there are a further 6.6% of non-UK BME staff members.
More girls than boys go to university, although this gap is slowly decreasing (from 14.6 to 13.2% over the period from 2003/4). In some subjects the disparity is huge: 80.6% are girls in subjects allied to medicine, 76.6% in veterinary sciences, and even in biological sciences the percentage is 62.9%.
She concludes with the interesting question:
So, we should be asking ourselves, not only ‘are we nearly there?’, but where is the ‘there’ we are trying to reach. Is the ideal a 50:50 split between the genders at all levels and for all subjects, or do we believe that this is a) impossible or b) undesirable – or even c) irrelevant as a metric.
Meanwhile, it’s fairly obvious from other sources that we’re not nearly there, for any reasonable definition of “there”, even leaving aside the obvious matters of the gender pay gap and the dearth of women in top jobs.
Personally, I’m not a huge sports fan. Well, not really a sports fan at all, to be honest. I do participate at grass roots level (let’s hear it for parkrun), but I don’t really follow or even watch sport. But I’d like to be able to not watch women’s sport on an equal footing to men’s. From Zoe Williams:
A young female rower told me two years ago that the big scandal of the way women were treated in UK sport was best illustrated by netball: it was never covered by the media, even though we were among the best in the world.
As host nations of the Olympics, we could have nominated it as one of our four new events. Instead, we chose women’s boxing: no spectator base, no foothold in schools, no realistic chance of it catching on, but you wanted equality, ladies? Here, take a punch in the face.
There are huge numbers of sports fans, but they don’t see many women. But then, people listening to the Today Show don’t hear many women, those watching Question Time don’t see many, and people reading newspapers don’t read women’s words, according to recent research. Women are seriously under-represented in the media.
And it gets worse. As I wrote last month, there’s a lot of misogyny around, and a number of women wrote about what they encountered. A week or so ago, Nick Cohen wrote a piece on the subject, and as described by Ellie Mae O’Hagan
Almost as soon as the piece was published, “Nick Cohen” started trending on Twitter. Clicking on the topic revealed scores of men and women sharing and praising his article; congratulating him for “nailing” the subject.
Why, she asks, did Nick Cohen trend on Twitter?
After all, it didn’t trend on Twitter when women pointed it out; and if I remember rightly, a great deal of respondents told us to stop being so weak. [...] How strange, then, that Cohen’s piece should be the subject of such adulation. How unfathomable it is that his opinion should be lauded more than those for whom misogyny is a lived experience. It seems, as one Twitter user put it to me, that when “feminist women call sexism they are portrayed as killjoys; when feminist men do it, they are portrayed as white knights riding to the aid of defenceless women.”
There’s some progress, though. Well, maybe. Hamley’s has stopped colour coding its floors pink and blue for girls and boys. That’s bound to make a difference. Isn’t it?
by Louise Pryor
5 December 2011 in Newnham news
Professor Uta Frith, who is an Honorary Fellow of Newnham, is the subject of Jim Al-Khalili’s The Life Scientific broadcast on Radio 4 on Tuesday, 6 December at 9 am and again at 9.30 pm.
by Louise Pryor
29 November 2011 in Newnham news
It’s interview time again: do you remember what questions you were asked? Mary Beard has written a thought provoking article for the BBC, explaining why she sometimes asks what Romans wore under their togas.
by Louise Pryor
26 November 2011 in Interesting stuff
In the EU, only 41% of PhD graduates in science, maths, and computing are women, and only 25% in engineering. Liz Bolshaw, in the FT’s Women at the top blog, points out that:
The dearth of academically qualified female scientists at doctorate level simply fuels a downward spiral in numbers of women researchers in industry and in senior management. Of the FT’s top 50 women in global business this year, there are just two mechanical engineers: Ellen Kullman (chief executive of DuPont) and Ursula Burns (chief executive of Xerox). Li Xiaolin, chief executive of China Power International Development, has an MSc in engineering (power systems), as does Ho Ching, chief executive of Temasek Holdings in Singapore. The lone chemist in the ranking is Olivia Lum, founder and chief executive of Hyflux, one of the world’s leading makers of membrane-based desalination and water treatment plants. There is not one European business leader in our ranking who has a science background.
There are some initiatives that aim to address the problem, as the blog describes, but it’s not a good situation to be in, 100 years after Marie Curie won the Nobel prize.
by Louise Pryor
24 November 2011 in Interesting stuff
It’s great to read pieces like this one, in the FT’s Women at the Top blog (which is consistently interesting). Heather Rarick is a flight director who works in Mission Control for the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. She has led international space station expeditions and space shuttle missions.
“How we talk about engineering isn’t necessarily how things are,” she says. “When you think of engineer, you think of an old man sitting at a desk number-crunching or building software. But so much of engineering is about helping to solve problems – problems in transportation, or the medical arena. The messaging isn’t there yet.”
by Louise Pryor
23 November 2011 in Site development
We’ve now got a twitter account: you can follow us at @NewnhamAssocs. We’re unlikely to be very wordy, so it won’t take up too much of your time!
by Louise Pryor
21 November 2011 in Newnham news
The Governing Body of Newnham College, Cambridge intends to elect a new Principal to succeed Dame Patricia Hodgson, and retained Russell Reynolds Associates to support it in making this appointment. Full particulars are available on the Russell Reynolds website. The closing date for applications is 19 December 2011.
by Louise Pryor
18 November 2011 in Associates news
We had a really good Associates meeting at Newnham the other weekend. It took the now usual format, the AGM in the morning, lunch in College Hall, and then a workshop with students in the afternoon.
The morning’s meeting was, as usual, lively and full of discussion. We heard about various aspects of the Associates’ and College activity, discussed some ideas about what we should do in the future. The Principal gave us her usual thorough update, and we watched a video about life at Newnham. I think we all recognised aspects of our own experience in it, however long ago it had been since we were students ourselves.
Drinks in the SCR and lunch followed, with some of the students who would be taking part in the afternoon’s workshop, which was on finding a career that fits. The workshop was so popular that we’d had to move it from the Lucia Windsor room to the Jane Harrison room.
We started off with an ice-breaking exercise: what animal what you be from the list, and why? There was a huge variety: I thought I’d like to be an eagle, soaring alone in the sky, but as many of us seemed to have the same idea I’m not sure how solitary it would be.
We then got down to business, discussing what our values were and how we had discovered them, and how they could interact with our careers. As always, all participants seemed to find the discussions helpful, whatever stage their own careers were at. After two hours we were left wanting more, always a good way to finish.
by Louise Pryor
9 November 2011 in Associates news
Something to add to your Christmas list — Nikolaus Pevsner: The Life, by Associate Susie Harries has been getting great reviews.
(If you know of more reviews, add them in the comments below).
by Louise Pryor
9 November 2011 in Interesting stuff
There’s a great video and accompanying blog about why Rosalind Franklin, a Newnham alumna who contributed to the discovery of the structure of DNA, is one woman’s favourite scientist.
by Louise Pryor
7 November 2011 in Interesting stuff
A month ago I, like many other general insurance actuaries, was at GIRO, our annual conference. There were around 650 people there, slightly under 20% of whom were women. And the proportion of speakers who were women was even lower (many thanks to Kathryn Morgan for the stats). I think it’s fair to say that the actuarial profession hasn’t been at the forefront of women’s rights: the Institute of Actuaries was founded in 1848, and women were first admitted to membership in 1919. The first woman fellow was Dorothy Davis, in 1923. Jane Curtis, the current President, is the first woman to hold the post. I’m pretty sure that when I qualified, in the mid 80′s, there were fewer than 100 women fellows.
Way back in the mists of time (1954), Monica Allanach, Pat Merriman and others started holding ladies’ tea parties, informal get-togethers for women actuaries. Over time the Ladies’ Actuarial Dining Society grew out of the tea parties, but now it’s being wound up. So last week we had a party in Staple Inn, the home of the Institute of Actuaries, to mark the end of the LADS and to recognise the achievements of women in mathematics.
It was a great evening, with about 50 or 60 of us there. Jane Curtis gave a short speech outlining the reasons for our being there, and Suw Charman-Anderson, the founder of Ada Lovelace Day, talked about the need for female role models in science, technology, engineering and maths. So we celebrated the achievements of all the fantastic women who have preceded us, including all those early women actuaries, and were urged to go out and inspire others.
Suw said that one of the reasons why she founded Ada Lovelace day was because she got fed up of the tech industry’s continual excuses for the lack of women speakers at conferences. Which brings us full circle.
by Louise Pryor
18 October 2011 in Events
We’re running what promises to be a fascinating workshop for Associates and other Newnham alumnae interested in moving themselves and other women into Non-Executive Boardroom roles. It’s in central London on 8 December – this is a change from the original date (which was 30 November). If you’re interested in attending, please get in touch with Heather Self.
by Louise Pryor
2 October 2011 in Newnham news
There are two elections coming up in the Newnham world.
First, there’s the election for the new Chancellor of the University. Those entitled to vote include all graduates of the University who have taken the Cambridge MA or any other Cambridge Masters Degree (for example the LLM, MPhil, MSci, MEng, MRes, or MBA), a Cambridge Doctorate, or the Cambridge BD Degree. Voting takes place on 14 and 15 October, nicely convenient for any alumae attending the Newnham Year launch on 15 October.
Second, Newnham is looking for a new Principal to replace Patricia Hodgson, who will be retiring at the end of this academic year. All alumnae should recently have received an email inviting their involvement in the process of identifying a successor. In particular, the college is looking for views on the qualities that the successor should have, or suggestions about possible candidates. If you send us your suggestions, we’ll pass them on.
by Louise Pryor
27 September 2011 in Interesting stuff
You might think that the struggle for women’s suffrage is over, especially with the recent news about Saudi women. But you’d be wrong, according to this interesting blog.
by Louise Pryor
2 September 2011 in Associates news
An Associate, Isabelle Grey, has just had a new book published: a novel, called Out of Sight.
The publisher’s blurb says:
Patrick Hinde is a loving husband and caring father, but when his parents come to stay for a few fateful days one July he simply wants to flee from the difficult memories they provoke. Their departure leaves Patrick exhausted and overwhelmed. The last thing he remembers is strapping his toddler son, Daniel, into his car seat, ready to drop him off at the child minder on his way to work. Five years later, in a village in south-west France, a young English woman is attracted to a withdrawn man who calls himself Patrice. He has no wife, no child, and he refuses ever to get inside a car. Leonie is certain that love will heal his emotional wounds, but Patrice repeatedly evades his damaged past. When Leonie eventually discovers his incomprehensible and fatal act of forgetfulness, will she be able to forgive him? And is it ever too late to change? These are just some of the questions Isabelle Grey explores in this suspenseful and thought-provoking novel.
by Louise Pryor
17 August 2011 in Site development
The site now shows future and past events. All I’ve got to do now is to add the actual content, so there are some to show!
The main events page lets you choose whether you want to see future, past or all events: the default is future events. You can also see all events of a particular type: by clicking on the type of a specific event, you’ll see all events of that type. And from that page, you can then choose other types. Hmm… there ought to be a way of going directly to that page, come to think of it.
But still, although there is probably plenty of fine tuning that could be done, the basics are well and truly in place now.
by Louise Pryor
14 August 2011 in Site development
Forums and groups are now pretty much working. The way they fit together may not be entirely intuitive, but I’m not going to re-architect the whole buddypress / bbpress interface.
Basically, every forum topic is associated with a group. Any logged in member (ie, any logged in Associate) can see all topics associated with public groups, and can post to any of them. They can also start a new topic in any public group. If they’re not already a member of the relevant group, they’ll be enrolled automatically.
There’s one public group — Associates — that all Associates are automatically members of. I imagine that other groups might be started, for instance people interested in particular topics or events, but it’s equally possible that everything will be done under separate topics in the Associates group. It’ll be interesting to see how things work out.
As well as public groups, there are also private groups and hidden groups.
Private groups appear in the listing of groups, but if you’re not a member you can’t see the topics and you can’t post to them.
Hidden groups don’t even appear in the listing of groups. I don’t imagine hidden groups will be used much. There’s a separate group for the Committee, but I should think that it’ll be private, rather than hidden. Again, it’ll be interesting to see how things work out.
by Louise Pryor
28 July 2011 in Site development
The Associates directory is now pretty much working. We’ve got a reasonable search function on it, contact forms for each Associate, and reasonable profile editing for the Associates.
Along the way I discovered what I think is a bug in the buddypress search, which has been pretty frustrating.
by Louise Pryor
21 July 2011 in Site development
We now have working contact forms on the site.
One form will appear on each person’s profile, and will send an email to that person. And then there’s a generalised one, that will send an email to the secretary.
They are spam protected (akismet on the sender info, and reCAPTCHA widget on the form itself).
Next up: Do some work on the menu and navigation in general.
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