Pharmaceutical chemist Tu Youyou’s discovery of a new malaria treatment has saved millions of lives. Youyou, who studied traditional Chinese and herbal medicines, found a reference in ancient medical texts to using sweet wormwood to treat intermittent fevers–a symptom of malaria. Youyou and her research team were able to extract a malaria-inhibiting substance called artemisinin […]
Read More Tu YouyouIt is hard to overstate Ginsburg’s legal, political and cultural legacy. The second-ever female Supreme Court Justice, she entered law school in 1956, a time when women accounted for less than 3% of the legal profession in the U.S. She would spend her life strategically dismantling this status quo; as her former ACLU colleagues once […]
Read More RIP RBGThe Department of Homeland Security has announced that it is looking into a whistleblower complaint that claimed federal immigration detainees underwent unnecessary gynecological surgeries–including full hysterectomies–without their consent. Dawn Wooten, the confirmed whistleblower, told Project South that many of the Spanish-speaking female immigrants at the facility did not fully understand what a hysterectomy was or […]
Read More ICE & Forced HysterectomiesTo be a feminist means to lift up all womxn--regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or creed. Femiscience condemns all forms of racism and discrimination that exist in the United States and around the world. As such, Femiscience stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement and plans to actively work to fight prejudices. An […]
Read More BLACK LIVES MATTERAfter World War II, as coding jobs spread from the military into the private sector, women remained in the world of coding–doing some of the most high-profile work. When the number of coding jobs exploded in the 50’s and 60’s as companies began relying on software to process payrolls and assimilate data, men had no […]
Read More THE SECRET HISTORY OF WOMEN IN CODINGAccording to the Social Role Theory, the cause for division of gender roles in society and the development of gender stereotypes are the physical differences between men and women. As a result, women are seen as primary caregivers, while men are seen as breadwinners. Consequently, more caregiving-type careers (such as nursing and teaching) are seen […]
Read More SOCIAL ROLES AND GENDER STEREOTYPESI am a member and head of the medical group in FemStem—a club in which high school girls mentor middle school girls and help them pursue their STEM passions. A few weeks ago as I was teaching middle school girls how to suture, I had a sincere awakening. In the moment, I identified two distinctly different […]
Read More TWO TYPES OF GIRLSCynthia Kenyon, biochemist and geneticist, is revolutionizing our understanding of aging. She is creating new ways to help us live longer and happier lives by developing methods to slow aging and prevent age-related diseases. As an expert in biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California at San Francisco, she is particularly interested in the influence that […]
Read More CYNTHIA KENYONFeminism is not about making women stronger. Women are already strong. It is about changing the way the world perceives that strength. This begins by empowered women empowering other women. After the recent Women’s March, it is important to continue to advocate for the many reasons why women should be encouraged to pursue STEM. The lack […]
Read More EMPOWERED WOMEN EMPOWER WOMENProfessor Rivka Carmi is the first female president of an Israeli research university, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, but her many accomplishments do not stop there. Carmi was born in Israel and is a graduate of Hadassah Medical School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She completed a residency in pediatrics, a fellowship in neonatology at […]
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FEMISCIENCE 