So – I saw an post on Twitter about the AAAS Public Enagement with Science Award
The AAAS awards for public engagement with science are open for nominations! http://t.co/NHeB6a3NJM #scicomm
— Jon Tennant (@Protohedgehog) July 28, 2015
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
And I went to check it out since, well, I wondered – how could I win that. And so I thought – I should look at how I compare to previous winners. And in one way I compare really well. I am male.
Below is a list of past winners (via AAAS). In yellow I highlight those that appear to be male and green those that appear to be female. I note I base my assignment on appearance and names and descriptions of the people including the descriptions from AAAS. I realize that determining someone’s gender is not always straightforward and that there are people who do not fit into this binary gender division and I apologize for any mistakes made.
- 2014 James Kakalios
- 2013 Steven Strogatz
- 2012 Richard B. Alley
- 2011 Nalini Nadkarni
- 2010 J. John Cohen
- 2009 May R. Berenbaum
- 2008 Kenneth R. Miller
- 2007 Neil deGrasse Tyson
- 2006 S. James Gates, Jr.
- 2005 Jane Lubchenco
- 2004 Eric S. Lander
- 2003 John Allen Paulos
- 2002 Bassam Shakhashiri
- 2001 Ian N. Stewart
- 2000 Vaclav Smil
- 1999 Lawrence Krauss
- 1998 Christopher Wills
- 1997 Barry T. Peterson
- 1996 Alan J. Friedman
- 1995 Carl Sagan
- 1994 Edward O. Wilson
- 1993 Science Theatre
- 1992 Farouk El-Baz
- 1991 Stephen H. Schneider
- 1990 William L. Rathje
- 1989 Robert D. Ballard
- 1988 Anthony M. Fauci
- 1987 Philip Morrison
The totals are 24 men and 3 women (and one group). Or, for those assigned to a gender, 89 % men and 11 % women. Could this all be about merit? I don’t think so. I think there are many examples of areas in which AAAS has problems with gender bias. For example, consider the recent letter (of which I am a cosigner) regarding AAAS’ reinforcement of “damaging stereotypes“.
Share this:
Jonathan Eisen's Lab 