Maintenance for the Woman Mathematician's soul

Favorite  readings and more


Intro note:

I have found the 'books and more' I'm listing here helpful to cheer me up and correct my 'perceptive coordinates'
(how I  frame what I perceive). I acknowledge the list to have the bias of my own taste and experience. I have
also found that some of the readings enjoy the preference of female friends in math, science, and engineering. I
hope they cheer you up too, and make your road lighter.

This 'readings and more' list is meant to grow as you send me  your own favorite 'readings and more' that helped
you on this path.

This page was born as an outgrowth of the AWM Panel on "Supporting the Diverse Lives of Mathematicians" at
the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Phoenix, AZ, in January 2004, organized by Carolyn Gordon (Dartmouth College),
Marianne Korten (Kansas State University), Helen Moore (American Institute of Mathematics), and Christina Sormani
(Lehman College, CUNY). It is linked to the web forum created in connection with the panel, mantained by Christina
Sormani. This page is mantained by Marianne Korten.

Books and More:

* Composing a life, Mary Catherine Bateson, Grove Press, New York, 1989.

* Lifting a ton of feathers (A woman's guide to surviving the academic world), Paula J. Caplan, University of Toronto
   Press, 1994.

* Tempered radicals (how everyday leaders inspire change at work), Debra E. Meyerson, Harvard Business School Press,
   2003.

* Talking form 9 to 5 (Women and men in the workplace: Language, sex and power), Deborah Tannen,  Avon Books, 1994.

* A Washington Post article by Colbert King: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54029-2004Jan27.html?referrer=emailarticle

* Any book by Nikki Giovanni. I love her poems, they are so no-nonsense and inspiring. http://nikki-giovanni.com/artman/publish/page_10.shtml

* A Washington Post article by Mary Ellen Slayter: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A57396-2004Apr30&notFound=true


Webpages:

* About women in Engineering (very enjoyable) : http://www.webfoot.com/advice/women.in.eng.html

* From the Association for Women in Science: http://www.chillyclimate.org/recommend.asp

* About graduate school (survival guide): http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/oleary/gradstudy/gradstudy.html

* A million things ... and lots on affirmative action: http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/bobo7.html

* NSF-ADVANCE awardees and their webpages: http://www.nsf.gov/home/crssprgm/advance/itwebsites.htm

To keep our hearts light:

* Pippi Longstocking, (book) Astrid Lindgren, School and library binding (reissue) 1997.

* Bend it like Beckham, (DVD) Gurinder Chadha, 2002.

* Feminist fairy tales, (book) Barbara G. Walker, Harper San Francisco, 1996.

* The alphabet versus the goddess (the conflict between word and image), (book) Leonard Shlain, Penguin Compass, 1998.

* Women who run with the wolves (myths and stories of the wild woman archetype), (book) Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ballatine Books,
   (reissue) 1997.


Reader's recommendations:

Christina's: 

* The Mists of Avalon,  also Dragonflight (books).
* Contact (movie). Alien has a strong woman but is horror scifi. Also Evita.

I quote her :

I found the biography of Chern "Chern-A great geometer of the
twentieth century" inspiring... his life was quite amazing...
I also like reading Uhlenbeck's short autobiography on her website...
I find looking up the vita's of good mathematicians also to be
encouraging (especially Irene Gamba and others with circuitous
routes to success).  Just choose your favorite mathematician and
go to their website.  Many have vitas posted there.

* http://www.ascb.org/committees/wicb/careerpdfs/WICB_chapter1.pdf  (especially the second article)
* Advise to prepare your tenure narrative: http://www.nyu.edu/fas/wfc/tenureNarrative.html (from http://www.nyu.edu/fas/wfc/).

Yours:

:)