by CHRC | Mar 11, 2020 | Data, Leadership
In doing our part to stop the spread of COVID-19, we’re all becoming experts at hand washing—and all of this handwashing during Women’s History Month shines a perfect light on Florence Nightingale.
Nightingale was a nurse serving soldiers in the Crimean Peninsula in the 1850s, when she insisted that her nursing staff stick to rigorous hygiene routines. Her hand washing practices laid the groundwork for today’s hygiene principles and nurse’s still attribute her as the foundational philosopher of modern nursing. While she was not the first to suggest that hand washing was important, she collected the data to prove it; which in turn persuaded others to pay attention and demand changes.
She presented her experiences and her data to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1856. This data was the reason they formed a Royal Commission to improve the health of the British Army. Nightingale was so skilled with data and numbers that in 1858 she was also elected as the first woman member of the Royal Statistical Society. ⁱ
How ironic, that the Italian city where she was born, that also inspired her traveling English parents to name her Florence, is now under quarantine.
by CHRC | Mar 4, 2020 | Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Leadership, Work Place
As we begin Women’s History Month, we should acknowledge that long before Rosie started riveting in relatively clean and safe surroundings, her forebearers were working (mostly unpaid) for millennia.
Too often, people associate women’s history solely with the image of Rosie the Riveter or suffragettes winning the right to vote in 1920. But we tend to forget that long before that, women worked for centuries in cottage industries, producing gloves, lace, and woolen goods in their cottages or homes. A huge leap occurred when women took these “handy” skills and transferred them to large looms run by steam power in the north of England and then New England. Often, the women working in these roles were on the lowest end of the social spectrum, and thus had no voice.
The First World War was a major shift. Now women were patriotic to take on paid roles outside of the domestic work that they had always done outside the home. By the end of 1918, American women made up nearly 20% of the workforce. Like their British sisters, once the American women had a taste of autonomy and contribution, they were not content to return to the farm or the home and lose the voice, and perhaps the pay packet, that they had gained once the men returned home. The “average” American woman then realized that the best way to make her voice heard was the ballot box.
So this Women’s History Month, let’s reflect on the contributions of the women before us and continue to celebrate their impact in our world every day. Read More Here
by CHRC | Feb 26, 2020 | Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Labor Markets
The Economist claims that in a recent lecture, an esteemed economist at The University of Chicago asserted that “the decision to participate in a market is not simply about maximizing utility given a set of tastes and constraints.”
Underpinning much of what is taught and believed about economics at U of C is that all people are rational actors. But like Adam Smith, who understood that the invisible hand of efficient markets would only work within a system of moral actors, Marianne Bertrand’s research has uncovered that the labor market for women isn’t efficient within a system of societal biases.
To understand more about what Bertrand’s data reveals about the contributors to gender gaps in the labor markets Read More Here
by CHRC | Feb 26, 2020 | Labor Markets
The Economist claims that in a recent lecture, an esteemed economist at The University of Chicago asserted that “the decision to participate in a market is not simply about maximizing utility given a set of tastes and constraints.”
Underpinning much of what is taught and believed about economics at U of C is that all people are rational actors. But like Adam Smith, who understood that the invisible hand of efficient markets would only work within a system of moral actors, Marianne Bertrand’s research has uncovered that the labor market for women isn’t efficient within a system of societal biases.
To understand more about what Bertrand’s data reveals about the contributors to gender gaps in the labor markets Read More Here
by CHRC | Feb 19, 2020 | Human Capital
Today, everyone is convinced that STEM is the only path forward, and certainly the only path into the sciences. But what if you heard the tale of a young man who found his (milky) way to becoming an astrophysicist while studying Ancient Greek?
Not just any astronomer, but one whose research helped a NASA lunar vehicle navigate.
This past October, I tripped over this Krista Tippett interview with Dr. George Coyne, S.J. and a fellow Jesuit astronomer, who also studied Ancient Greek. I found it fascinating, and upon hearing of Fr. Coyne’s death on February 11, I had to revisit it.
Coyne’s “stumbling” into astronomy caught my attention because of another unusual journey I heard firsthand. On a flight a few years ago, my seatmate was a world class physicist who had started college as an English major. The university, however, made her take an intro to science course, in which she had NO interest. Yet there, she found poetry in physics, and the world gained someone who could unlock the great mysteries of math, as well as words. Yet in both her case and that of George Coyne, they were able to translate complex math and science into terms that the rest of us could understand—because they both had well rounded backgrounds.
If we continue to push today’s young people to study only what is practical, and deemed useful for this decade, or even millennium, from what universes might they be kept? Read More Here
