October 1, 2008
Susan McGee Bailey, executive director of the Wellesley Centers for Women, received a 2008 Galaxy Award by the Science Club for Girls in Massachusetts at the organization’s annual fundraiser and networking breakfast on September 30, 2008. Recognized for her groundbreaking work to raise awareness and promote participation of girls in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), Bailey was lauded for How Schools Shortchange Girls, the 1992 AAUW report for which she was principal author. The report served as one of the motivating forces behind the founding of Science Club for Girls.
For more than 30 years, Bailey has worked on gender equity issues in education. She has taught in the United States, Asia, and Latin America and has written and lectured extensively on issues of gender equity in education including math, science, and technology. Bailey currently serves as co-director of the Fairer Science project at WCW, one of two projects currently funded by the National Science Foundation. Fairer Science aims to help researchers in gender and the sciences better communicate their work to the media, policy makers, and advocates. The project also works to help media better understand issues of gender and STEM.
Science Club for Girls’ mission is to increase the self-confidence and science literacy of K–12th grade girls belonging to groups that are underrepresented in the sciences, through free, after school programs that provide experiential learning, mentorship, and leadership opportunities. Girls work with mentor-scientists who model and foster leadership, affirm college as an expectation, and promote careers in science and technology as goals and options.
For nearly 35 years, the Wellesley Centers for Women has placed women's perspectives and experiences at the core of its social science research projects and training programs. Work at the Wellesley Centers for Women addresses three major areas: the status of women and girls and the advancement of their human rights both in the United States and around the globe; the education, care, and development of children and youth; and the emotional wellbeing of families and individuals. Issues of diversity and equity are central across all the work as are the experiences and perspectives of women from a variety of backgrounds and cultures.
