How do people react to Women Doing Science?
International scientists are using social media to both promote images of diverse women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) and study how people respond to these posts.
Women Doing Science
Their newly published study in academic journal Social Media + Society looks at how successful the Women Doing Science Instagram page, with almost 100,000 followers, has been in portraying women scientists with diverse racial and national identities, and how the audience for these posts reacts to these portrayals.
So, what have UC, Caltech and UCLA researchers learned from their social media-based investigation? How do people react to posts of Women Doing Science on Instagram?
Dr Camilla Penney recently moved from Queens’ College at the University of Cambridge, UK, to join the University of Canterbury (UC) as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Earth and Environment. An expert in seismic hazards and tectonics, Dr Penney got involved in Women Doing Science (WDS) while working as a researcher at Caltech in Pasadena, California.
“Women Doing Science isn’t my current main research focus – which is about using computer models to investigate potential future earthquakes – but is the subject of our new paper, and a project I’m really passionate about. This research looks at how we can use social media to help young women to imagine themselves as future scientists,” she says.