Colonel Stacey K. Vargas is a professor of Physics at the Virginia Military Institute. I found her poem -- with its vicious circles -- in the wonderful and provocative anthology, Raising Lilly Ledbetter: Women Poets Occupy the Workspace, edited by Carolyne Wright, M. L. Lyons, and Eugenia Toledo (Lost Horse Press, 2015).
Circle of Silence by Stacey K. Vargas
Like an electron trapped in an unstable orbit, I am seated in a circle of powerful men.
In an awkward moment small talk ends and the meeting abruptly begins.
The superintendent turns to me and says, "This was not sexual harassment."
I turn to the inspector general and say, "After everything you heard in this investigation,
you find this acceptable?"
The inspector general turns to my department head but remains silent.
Showing posts with label Lilly Ledbetter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lilly Ledbetter. Show all posts
Friday, March 10, 2017
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Women occupy mathematics
Poems thrive on imagery created from specific (rather than vague) details -- and numbers and other math terms are very specific! Below I present several samples of mathematical imagery in poems from an excellent and important recent anthology Raising Lilly Ledbetter: Women Poets Occupy the Workspace.
Here are the opening lines of "Circle of Silence" by Stacey K. Vargas:
Like an electron trapped in an unstable orbit, I am seated
in a circle of powerful men.
In an awkward moment small talk ends
and the meeting abruptly begins.
The superintendent turns to me and says,
"This was not sexual harassment."
And the opening lines of "The Typist" by Barbara Drake:
I made 87 1/2 cents an hour typing,
when I was a college student.
Here are the opening lines of "Circle of Silence" by Stacey K. Vargas:
Like an electron trapped in an unstable orbit, I am seated
in a circle of powerful men.
In an awkward moment small talk ends
and the meeting abruptly begins.
The superintendent turns to me and says,
"This was not sexual harassment."
And the opening lines of "The Typist" by Barbara Drake:
I made 87 1/2 cents an hour typing,
when I was a college student.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
The culture for women in math and the sciences
Perhaps the phrase "ordinary" women scientists is an oxymoron -- but it should not be. Women should be free to populate the full range of aspiration and dedication to science or any other profession. In this spirit, I offer below the opening lines of a thought-provoking poem, "Ordinary Women Scientists," by science writer and poet Mary Alexandra Agner,
from the excellent and important anthology Raising Lilly Ledbetter: Women Poets Occupy the Workspace.
from Ordinary Women Scientists by Mary Alexandra Agner
for R.C.
leave the lab late, flasks washed and waiting,
computer on an overnight crunch job,
warm dinner in the microwave
while wondering at excited water molecules,
wave their kids goodnight, grateful
Here are links to several recent items about math-women:
This link leads to a young mathematician's view of being "a female role model."
Here is a report of a panel at Harvard discussing roles of women in mathematics.
Here is a link to the Women in Maths Facebook page where visitors
may post information and offer support for math women.
This link leads to my poem celebrating Emmy Noether. Here we celebrate Caroline Herschel.
Here at mathblogging.org is a place to find all sorts of math-links.
from Ordinary Women Scientists by Mary Alexandra Agner
for R.C.
leave the lab late, flasks washed and waiting,
computer on an overnight crunch job,
warm dinner in the microwave
while wondering at excited water molecules,
wave their kids goodnight, grateful
Labels:
Lilly Ledbetter,
Mary Alexandra Agner,
math,
ordinary,
poem,
poet,
scientists,
women
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Celebrating Ada Lovelace
Recently I have purchased the anthology, Raising Lilly Ledbetter: Women Poets Occupying the Workplace (edited by Caroline Wright, M.L. Lyons & Eugenia Toledo, Lost Horse Press, 2015), and have found in it dozens of wonderful poems, including several that celebrate women of science. Below I offer a poem by New York poet Jo Pitkin that honors Ada Lovelace (1815-1852).
Bird, Moon, Engine by Jo Pitkin
Like a fence or a wall to keep me from harm,
tutors circled me with logic, facts, theorems.
But I hid the weeds growing wild in my mind.
By age five, I could plot the arc of a rainbow.
I could explain perpendicular and parallel.
In my mind, I heard the wind in wild weeds.
Bird, Moon, Engine by Jo Pitkin
Like a fence or a wall to keep me from harm,
tutors circled me with logic, facts, theorems.
But I hid the weeds growing wild in my mind.
By age five, I could plot the arc of a rainbow.
I could explain perpendicular and parallel.
In my mind, I heard the wind in wild weeds.
Labels:
Ada Lovelace,
Charles Babbage,
computer,
divided,
Jo Pitkin,
Lilly Ledbetter,
logic,
parallel,
perpendicular,
program,
theorem
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