career

“You made it!” Applause spread across the room to congratulate the people who had recently accepted their first faculty position at a university. To shed some light on what comes next for these soon-to-be junior faculty members, a diverse panel of early career professors spoke about their pre-tenure experiences. Drs. Shantal Marshall, Lindsey Rodriguez, Justin Troisi, and Jackie Chen represented schools that vary in size, demographics, location, and expectations. They shared how teaching, service, and research each have played a role in their progress toward tenure.

Despite the fact that most academics’ careers (or professional lives) depend on writing and publishing prolifically, many new faculty would rather do almost anything but write. Natalie Sabik, who researches social identity and health, and has created a writing accountability group, jokes that some days she would rather fold laundry than start writing.

It’s no secret that Silicon Valley employs many more men than women in tech jobs. What’s much harder to agree on is why.

The recent anti-diversity memo by a now former Google engineer has pushed this topic into the spotlight. The writer argued there are ways to explain the gender gap in tech that don’t rely on bias and discrimination – specifically, biological sex differences. Setting aside how this assertion would affect questions about how to move toward greater equity in tech fields, how well does his wrap-up represent what researchers know about the science of sex and gender?