Chicago tops tech cities in women-led startups

Chicago still has catching up to do when it comes to its startup scene, but there's one place where the city leads the pack:

It has the highest percentage of women-led startups among 35 cities worldwide what were studied by San Francisco-based Compass, a provider of benchmarking software.

The report says Chicago, with 30 percent female founders, has the greatest percentage of women entrepreneurs out of the top 20 startup ecosystems. The data is based on surveys of 11,000 respondents from startups, as well as investors and others. The figure is similar to one cited by Chicago-based startup hub 1871.

Crains Chicago Business has the story.

Chicago parks have zero statues of women, 48 statues of men

Plenty of men are memorialized in stone and bronze in Chicago’s parks: Explorer Leif Ericson, president George Washington, former Illinois governor John Peter Altgeld, even Greene Vardiman Black. Not familiar with him? He’s the "father of modern dentistry." Chicago’s public spaces do have statues of female figures — nymphs, goddesses, and Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz to name a few — but you won’t find a single statue or bust of a historically significant woman in any of the city’s 580 parks.

“It’s really time to honor more females,” said Asya Akca, a University of Chicago political science major who is pushing for a statue of a notable woman on her campus in Hyde Park. “It’s a huge oversight that they’re not being honored.”

According to the Chicago Park District, there are no statues of women in our city’s parks because the heyday of public figurative sculpture in the United States took place at a time before women had earned the right to vote.

To rectify that lack of representation, the district has named and renamed more than 40 parks to honor the legacies of notable women over the last 11 years. There are now 66 parks named after women in Chicago, according to the park district. Yet, during that same period, figurative statues and busts of men have continued to be erected around the city.

In 2004, a tribute featuring several figurative bas-relief sculptures of George Halas, founder of the Chicago Bears, went up near Gate 15 of Soldier Field in Burnham Park. That same year, Martin Luther King Park on West 76th Street in Auburn Gresham got a bust of the civil rights leader. WBEZ has the story.

Southern Illinois women face their flaws and 'Feel Beautiful'

Being a woman in the Western world means that our beauty — or lack thereof — is valued above just about everything else. Especially because most of us don't fit into the narrow parameters that define that beauty.

Jenn Fortune, a photographer based in Marion, and the 20 Southern Illinois women who modeled for her "Feel Beautiful, Know Your Beauty" photography project, are hoping to spread body positivity and acceptance in all shapes, sizes, ages and races.

Fortune hosted an exhibit opening at her studio in the Star Centre Mall this past Thursday, where she displayed her 1950s-inspired pin-up photos. Read Alee Quick's story in the Southern Illinoian.

Girls With Toys

by Kate Clancy for Slate

By high school many girls drop science classes despite outperforming the boys who stay.

On Saturday morning, I turned on NPR while I made breakfast for my daughter and me. We had a big day ahead: first the farmers market, then a nearby forest preserve’s migratory bird festival featuring a mist-netting demonstration and the chance to take home and dissect your own owl pellet.

I listened to Scott Simon introduce a piece in a series called Joe’s Big Idea, which is intended to explore “how ideas become innovations and inventions.” The piece was about a scientist, and I’m a scientist, so of course my ears perked up as Joe Palca interviewed Caltech astrophysicist Shrinivas Kulkarni. It started on a great note: Palca asked Kulkarni what is beyond the universe, and they had a conversation on abstract versus practical questions in astronomy. Then, Kulkarni made a statement that is getting a lot of attention.
Kulkarni: “Many scientists are I think, secretly, are what I call ‘boys with toys.’" Slate has the story and twitter photos of women scientists with their toys.

'Think manager, think man' stops us seeing woman as leaders

Think about the best leader you’ve ever worked with. The person is likely to be inspiring; someone whose vision for the future motivated and drove you to success. Now consider: is this leader a man or a woman?

If you are like most people, the person you have brought to mind is male. This well-known psychological phenomenon is known as “think manager, think man”. It occurs because the traits we typically associate with leaders – forceful, dominant, strong, competent or even heroic – are stereotypically associated with men.

By contrast, there are fewer qualities stereotypically associated with women that we also associate with leadership, such as being a good communicator. I would go so far as to say that some of the qualities we see as being highly characteristic of women are incompatible with leadership. Read the entire story in the Guardian.

Becoming an Outdoors-Woman

 Mitch Ingold bravely stood before 85 women and delivered potentially disappointing news.

It was a warm, breezy Saturday in the woods — perfect weather for camp. But Ingold had to tell the women, who had come to this north central Illinois site to learn as much as they could about the outdoors, that approaching storms might impact Sunday's activities.

"But what about archery?" a woman called out.

"Beekeeping?" asked another.

"Power tools?"

The women were participants in Becoming an Outdoors-Woman, a weekend-long workshop coordinated by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources each June and September.

The most recent event was held over three days on the Lorado Taft Field Campus of Northern Illinois University, adjacent to Lowden State Park. Twenty-four classes were offered on a variety of outdoor-related topics, each lasting 3 1/2 hours. Along with lessons about firearms and fishing, topics included everything from horse grooming and dutch oven cooking to picnic table yoga and, yes, power tools.

Becoming an Outdoors-Woman workshops are offered in 39 states and six Canadian provinces. Illinois has hosted them since 1995, but Ingold, field education coordinator for the IDNR, said they have never been so popular.

"Six years ago, 40 or 50 would sign up and it would take three months for registration to fill," Ingold said. "The last three years all workshops have been full, registration closed within six weeks, and this time we had a waiting list.

"You can always tell how good your program is by the number of returning participants," he said. "Ninety percent of our new participants come a second, third or 10th time."

The camp has become increasingly popular as more women get involved in outdoor sports, and as more women live independently, according to Ingold. Read the story in the Chicago Tribune.

Find out more:
Illinois Becoming an Outdoors Woman Workshop

Navy to double maternity leave, make fitness changes

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus is set to unveil a host of far-reaching initiatives and policy changes aimed at improving quality of life and careers for sailors and Marines, a senior Navy official confirmed to Navy Times.

Mabus, in a speech to the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland on Wednesday, will announce plans to ease body fat restrictions, boost career flexibility, and push to recruit more women in the Navy and Marine Corps, while opening up the last jobs that remain closed to them.

Some of the initiatives aimed at retaining women include doubling paid maternity leave to 12 weeks, longer child-care hours, an updated co-location policy for dual military couples and opportunities like the career intermission program, which allows sailors to take time off to pursue educational or other personal goals. Read more.

Changing the face of the technology workforce

While the number of women taking on STEM fields is
growing, technology jobs are still male-dominated.

“Studies show that if you ask a female student how she did on a test—without knowing the score—she will say, ‘Oh I did pretty bad,’” said Gokhale. “But if you ask a male student, he would say, ‘Oh I did fine.’ 

The number of technology jobs across the globe is skyrocketing. Studies estimate computing jobs will more than double by 2020, reaching into the millions. Yet underrepresented groups are not finding the paths to jump into the technology boom. Professor of Technology Anu Gokhale is part of an initiative to change that.

Gokhale and Professor Emeritus Kent Machina are helping to spearhead a program to give more high school teachers the credentials to teach computer science. Known as Teacher Education in Computer Science (TECS), the National Science Foundation-funded initiative is already being cultivated in the Chicago Public School system.

“More and more, computer science is being accepted to fulfill math or science credits in high schools,” said Gokhale. “Having a math, science, or technology teacher who could also teach computer science will not only benefit the districts, it will open the doors to more students who might not have considered computing as a future career path.” Read more.

More women pursuing lead on Illinois family farms

More than 20 years ago, Laura Sellmyer’s dad and uncle expected one of her two brothers would be the next generation farmer.

But, it didn’t turn out that way. Laura took over her family’s Livingston County farm — 1,500 acres of corn and soybeans.

As a student at Illinois State University in Normal, she started taking agriculture classes and ended up with an ag business degree. She knew she wanted to farm.

“It was a big challenge. I came in not knowing if I would be able,” she recalls.

Her father worked for the FSA and had farmed with her uncle Bill. Her two brothers had been helping with the farm since they were kids, but she had not.

“My dad and uncle had no concept of a woman farming,” she says of when she first approached them after college for a job. But, she proved herself. Read more in Illinois Farmer Today.

Women campaign to help female veterans find resources

There are 54,707 female veterans in Illinois according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Former Army Pvt. First Class Jessica Lynch, the first successfully rescued POW since World War II, entered the sun-filled Veterans Resource Center in Gary wearing a friendly smile and olive green sweat pants that reveal the brace she wears on her lower leg.

As special guest for the "Celebration of Life" dinner and program to honor area veterans Monday night at the Center for Visual and Performing Arts in Munster, Lynch, along with the keynote speaker Dr. Irene Trowell-Harris, hope to bring more attention to the plight of female veterans.

Trowell-Harris, a retired major general with 38 years in the U.S. Air Force, was the first African-American woman to be promoted to general in the National Guard. She is also the former director of the Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Women Veterans. Read the Chicago Tribune story.

Video game camp teaches young girls coding

When 11-year-old Vani Subramony grows up, she wants to be an engineer or video game designer.

The Sycamore Middle School student was one of 11 girls who attended Northern Illinois University’s Girls Video Game Camp, a five-day crash course on what goes into making video games.

“I knew a lot about video games, but not how to make them,” Subramony said.

The girl-specific camp has been running for about five years and is intended to empower young girls interested in science, technology, engineering and math fields, camp leader Suzanne Jackiw said.

By Friday, each of the girls had designed, programmed and written the coding for their own three-dimensional virtual world and game using a coding program called Game-Maker: Studio. Now, nearly all of the girls want to pursue a career in technology, camp leader Rebecca Griffith said. Read the story in the daily chronicle.

Women-owned businesses have grown 74 percent over last two decades

More and more women own their own businesses in Indiana and Illinois, but growth in female-owned firms is much slower in the Hoosier state.

A study by American Express OPEN using U.S. Census data found the number of women-owned businesses has skyrocketed nationally by 74 percent since 1997. Illinois ranks 19th nationally with 68 percent growth in the number of female business owners over the last 18 years, while Indiana placed 45th nationwide with 37.7 percent growth.

Women-owned businesses however are more profitable in Indiana where their revenue has grown 93 percent between 1997 and 2015. Over the same period, profits for women-owned businesses grew only 33.7 percent in Illinois, placing it 48th nationally. Read more in the Northwest Herald.