Wednesday 4 February 2015

Post No. 652 - Reading




G'day, hello, howdy, hi, zdravstvujtye (some of my work colleagues are Russian, including an absolutely invaluable administrator who has recently taken maternity leave - may she and young one and family be blest), guten tag (where I have connection owing to a recent past life), sveiki, czesc (I have friends, not just colleagues, at work who are Polish), bonjour (colleagues at a former workplace were French, and we practised and tried to extend my woeful and limited range of this language), selamat pagi (one of the best junior engineers I ever worked with was Malaysian, and she taught me a few words), annyeonghaseyo, pryvit, bitaem, como vai (a friend of mine a few years ago, although not Brazilian, had Portuguese ancestry), ¡Hola (a former work colleague and friend, a VERY talented artist - with a Mexican sensibility to her artwork, particularly around the Day of the Dead - used to teach me Mexican Spanish), Selamat pagi, ni hao (ah, my work trips to Asia, and the many wonderful, wonderful people I have met there - and some excellent work colleagues and friends here, as well), bongiorno (my current home city of Melbourne has lots of Greeks and Italians, who have made our culture far richer - and made us coffee snobs :) ), hoschakal, hejsan, ciao, jo napolt kivanu, chào bà, chào ông, yiassou (from the city which has, I understand, the largest collection of Greek people outside of Greece), ceau, salam wa aleikum, sawas dee ka, dia duit, hoi, hei, namaste, marhaba, dobry den.


On other matters:
From the article on experiences of women of colour in STEM cited above:
“… a new report, Double Jeopardy? Gender Bias Against Women of Color in Science, by professors Joan Williams, Katherine Phillips, and Erika Hall, … based on interviews with sixty women of color (Black, Asian, and Latina) in STEM and a survey of over five hundred scientists, finds that gender bias is an ever present problem for women in technical fields. Not only does bias make it harder for women to get ahead in their careers, but the stress of having to regularly deal with gender bias wears women down. As the report notes, “No matter what a woman’s race, bias is draining and demoralizing.”

Yet, women of color face additional hurdles because they experience a kind of double jeopardy in that they are on the receiving ends of both gender bias and racial/ethnic bias. Importantly, the specific types of biases and issues individual women have to navigate depends on the cultural stereotypes held about the social groups to which they belong. For example, the angry black women stereotype, the hot-headed Latina stereotype, and the soft-spoken Asian stereotype shape the particular forms of bias women of color experience. As a Black microbiologist explained, during tense discussions with fellow scientists, “I’m calm. I don’t raise my voice…Because if I were as assertive as some of Caucasian colleagues that are male, I would be called a mad Black woman.”
Some of the significant key findings in the report are:
  • 100% of those interviewed reported experiencing gender bias.
  • Two-thirds reported the Prove-It Again Bias – having to show more evidence of their competence than a man in order be seen as equally competent by colleagues.
  • Half of those surveyed reported backlash for behaving in an assertive manner or expressing anger and one-third reported backlash for self-promotion.
  • Black women scientists (77%) were more likely to report experiencing the Prove-It Again Bias (Latinas 64.5%; Asian American 63.6%, White 62.7%).
  • Asian-American women scientists were more likely to report workplace pressures to fulfill traditionally female roles and to get pushback if they didn’t.
  • 61% of Asian-American women scientists reported backlash for behaving assertively
  • 48% of Asian-American women scientists reported backlash for self-promotion
  • Latina scientists were more likely to be seen as “angry” or “emotional” when they behaved assertively.
  • Nearly 60% of Latina surveyed faced backlash for expressing anger as compared with 54% of Asian-American women, 50 % of White women, and 48% of Black women.
  • Both Latinas and Black women scientists report regularly being mistaken as janitors.
  • Over one-third of those surveyed reported sexual harassment.
The sad truth is that about HALF of women leave STEM careers at the mid-stage of their career and many never return. And much of the time they are leaving because, quite simply, they have had it.”

I can relate to every one of these findings in my career (i.e., day job) as a white female engineer.



[1] BPLF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Light Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").

Love, light, hugs and blessings


Gnwmythr, Wéofodthegn
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix Lux … aka Morinehtar … would-be drýicgan or maga ... )
My "blogiography" (list of all posts and guide as to how to best use this site) is here, and my glossary/index is here.
I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ... See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "Pagans for Peace" project (and join me at 9 PM on Sunday, wherever you are, to meditate-clear for peace), and here for my bindrune kit-bag. I also strongly recommend learning how to flame, ground and shield, do alternate nostril breathing, work with colour, and see also here and be flexible.


I am a Walker upon the Path of Balanced Positivity, seeking Spiritual Maturity.

  • neither eloquence nor inarticulateness inherently indicates correctness, but, as words can kill, the right to freedom of speech comes with a DUTY to be as well-informed, objective and balanced as you can be.
  • Gnwmythr's Stropping Strap: Occam's Razor only works if  the simplest solution is actually recognised as being the simplest, rather than the one that best fits one's bigotries being labelled 'simplest'.
  • I mourn the desecration of the term 'Light Worker' by commercial interests, and the warping of the word 'Light' away from 'Clear Light' by the "White Lighters".
  • Our entire life experience, with all the many wondrous and varied people, places and events in it, is too small a sample for statistical reliability about Life.
  • May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
  • Being accustomed to interacting via certain rules makes those rules neither right nor universal.
  • Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master.
  • The means shape the end.
  • My favourite action movie of all time is "Gandhi", although I've recently come across "Invictus" and might put that one in to that category. However, I loathe the stereotypical action movie - and, for similar reasons, I loathe many dramas, which are often emotionally violent, more so in some cases than many war films.
  • All of the above - and this blog - could be wrong, or subject to context, perspective, or state of spiritual evolution ...


Human dignity is the inherently cumulative holistic combination of human rights, wellbeing and potential, and all actions or interaction which promote, realise or facilitate same. The converse also applies: whatever degrades, diminishes or robs humans of dignity, is inherently undignified.
Gnwmythr

The “purpose” of spiritual evolution is not the attainment of “spiritual perfection” - not in the sense of not having to evolve further, at any rate, since there is no such thing. We need to evolve in order to grow - but we can take rest breaks (hopefully well earned :) ) along the way. No, the “purpose” of evolution is, rather, to perfect our ability to learn, and thus grow.
Gnwmythr

Our greatest struggle with, to borrow from pop culture, the Jedi-Sith scale, is not with the Sith, whether they are hiding or not: it is with the annoying, snotty-nosed, heroine/hero-worshipping little kid who keeps intruding, stopping us from being cool enough to be with our heroines/heroes, the big kids ...
Gnwmythr

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Females, get over 'cute'. Get competent. Get trained. Get capable. Get over 'cute'. And those of you who are called Patty and Debby and Suzy, get over that. Because we use those names to infantalise females – we keep females in their 'little girl' state by the names we use for them. Get over it. If you want to be taken seriously, get serious.
Jane Elliott

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing.
(based on writing by) Edmund Burke

We didn't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children
Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.
John F. Kennedy

Tags: attitudes, history, Lammas, magick, paganism, phagic attack, psychic abilities, reading, religion, shadow work, spirituality, telekinesis,
First published: Wodansdagr, 4th February, 2015
Last edited (excluding fixing typo's and other minor matters): Wednesday, 4th February, 2015
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