The scientific research funding process must be restructured to remove the barriers arising from conscious and unconscious biases experienced by women, and particularly women of colour, a Nature Chemistry Comment article argues. go.nature.com/3zqg4T4

Massively important exposition. Now for action. Rebalance the opportunities. Easy to say, hard to do. I’ll try to do my part. Daunting because of the scale of the systemic barriers and entrenched mindsets/privilege.

This paper... nature.com/articles/s4155…
Writing it was a positive experience for me at a difficult time (thanks Dr Katie Nicoll Baines (she/her) Dr Izzy Jayasinghe Dr Julie Jebsen) and hopefully it will effect positive change.

The always try to fix us women... well funding distribution is profoundly biased. Data is from UK.
7-35% PI women (Engineering vs. Bio).
Average grant 40% LESS.

nature.com/articles/s4155…

An important read for everyone out there who thinks that focussing on ‘quality’ alone will fix #gender (and other) inequalities in #STEM . Privilege is very much engrained in our (formal & informal) assessment and reward systems, & that’s what needs and can be fixed! #WomenInSTEM

#BWNFridayPost : 'Dismantling barriers faced by women in STEM' by @juliejebsen Dr Izzy Jayasinghe Prof Rachel Oliver 🐯 & Dr Katie Nicoll Baines (she/her) discusses the reasons behind women's cumulative disadvantage in STEM funding, and proposes a new system: the Universal Basic Research Grant biaswatchneuro.com/2022/10/28/bwn…

'For too long, our approaches to increasing diversity in science have focused on changing individuals rather than the systems that limit them — a ‘fix the women’ ethos.' 👏👏👏

I wouldn't say better: 'Our current system, riddled with inequities, leaves everybody poorer. Change is urgently needed.' We are wasting precious research funding by perpetuating sexism and discrimination of all sorts nature.com/articles/s4155…

Needs affirmative action - no argument. Let us not forget the prefix to “male privilege” and the impact of racism 😐

SNOOP DOGG narrating ‘Planet Earth’ is just the best.

I was cautiously optimistic when I saw Natural Environment Research Council announced they were experimenting with lotteries as a way to increase equity in awarding funding. Now that I've read the fine print I'm feeling misled. Maybe this is just a first step, but it seems an incremental change.

Research funding has a major say in who gets to do science, but is not distrubuted equitably. Dr Katie Nicoll Baines (she/her), Dr Izzy Jayasinghe, Prof Rachel Oliver 🐯 and I wrote about why #womeninSTEM are so disproportionately affected, and proposed a solution: rdcu.be/cYpAk

'For too long, our approaches to increasing diversity in science have focused on changing individuals rather than the systems that limit them' - great read that captures what we must do to bring systemic change, and go beyond perfunctory DEI initiatives (🧵- 1/n)

Friday reading:

“Workshops that aim to teach women how to dress, speak, advocate for themselves or ‘lean in’ ignore the real issue: it is not women who are broken, but the systems which place unfair and unnecessary barriers in their path.”