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Committee on Women in Statistics

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Activities
Book Club
On-line Mentor Programs
Related Websites
Community Discussion
Caucus
Past Activities

Updated on May 19, 2006

Membership 2005-2006

Rhonda Rosychuk (Chair), Hélène Crépeau, Edit Gombay, Caryn Thompson, Susana Rubin-Bleuer, Ying Zhang, Julie Horrocks (Caucus)

2006 Activities

Please join the Caucus for Women in Statistics and the Committee on Women in Statistics of the SSC for an informal get-together!

When:	Monday May 29, 2006, at 8:30 pm
Where:	Boardroom, UWO Graduate Club
Who:	Interested women and men. Students are especially welcome!
For More Information:	Please contact Julie Horrocks.

A jointly sponsored invited paper session will be held in the scientific program of the SSC meeting, titled "Regression Models: Recent Advances and Applications". The session will feature Tulay Koru-Sengul, Yun-Hee Choi, and Irina Dinu. For further information, please contact Rhonda Rosychuk.

Book Club

Have an interesting book or article that you want to share? Send your suggestions and reviews to the Chair.

Forster, Merna (2004). 100 Canadian Heroines: Famous and Forgotten Faces. Dundurn Press. ISBN: 1550025147
Julie Horrocks, University of Guelph
        Merna Forster's new book celebrates the lives of one hundred inspiring women. Most were born in Canada, but some moved here later in life or did important work in this country. Only a few pages are devoted to each woman - just enough to spark your interest and serve as a starting point for further research. The entries are arranged in alphabetical order, and almost all have at least one picture and a quote. The heroines include feminists, artists, authors, actresses, social and political activists, doctors, scientists, aviators, and engineers. Many struggled throughout their lives to get recognition in a male-dominated world, to find a suitable position in Academia or even to get into graduate school.
        I was most interested in the scientists, for instance Margaret Newton (Agricultural Science) Carrie Derick (Botany), Harriet Brooks (Physics). The biggest surprise to me was Maud Menten. The Michaelis-Menten equation figured prominently in my undergraduate course in non-linear regression, and I had no idea that the Menten involved was Canadian or female. But indeed she was! Maud Menten was born in Port Lambton, Ontario. She obtained a BA in 1904 at the University of Toronto, followed by a Masters in biology, an MD also from U of T, and finally a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Chicago in 1916. As she could not find an academic position in Canada, she went to the University of Pittsburgh and eventually became Head of Pathology at Children's Hospital there. Despite publishing 100 papers (some with other authors), she did not achieve full professorship until 1949 at the age of 70.
        This book deserves a place on your bedside table for inspiration, or on the family bookshelf for your daughters to dip into periodically as they grow up. A further resource is the companion website at www.heroines.ca.
Toth, Emily (2002). Ms. Mentor's Impeccable Advice for Women in Academia. Scholarly Book Services Inc. ISBN: 0812215664
Rhonda Rosychuk, University of Alberta
I purchased this book during the last stage of my doctoral studies. It was an enjoyable and illuminating read that provides advise for academic women during the various career stages. With humour, Ms. Mentor gives advice on surviving graduate school, searching for a job, and attending conferences. She provides guidance on the first year of the job, nearing tenure, after tenure, and retirement. Each chapter starts with general advice and the majority of her wisdom is delivered through a question and answer style like an advice column. Questions like: Do I need to publish to get a first job? What can I do when I call a meeting and no one comes? Should I go to the all guys poker club? Why do reviewers say such ugly things? Why do bozos get tenure? The Q&A's are provocative, irreverent, entertaining, and witty. Many minor and major aspects of academic life are discussed and this book can be revisited over a career for timely wisdom. A book well worth the purchase price!

On-line Mentor Programs

Several members have indicated an interest in mentor programs. Here are some mentor sites suggested by members.

Web Sites on Related Matters

Forum for Community Discussion

Contact the Chair of the SSC Committee on Women in Statistics to initiate a discussion or to post an item of interest.

Caucus for Women in Statistics

The SSC Committee on Women in Statistics sponsors events at the SSC annual meetings jointly with the Canadian Section of the Caucus for Women in Statistics. Julie Horrocks is the Chair of the Canadian Section of the Caucus.

Past Activities

SSC 2005 Activities

The Caucus for Women in Statistics in collaboration with the Committee on Women in Statistics of the SSC had a successful event at the 2005 SSC Annual Meeting held in Saskatoon. Twenty-nine women and men socialized over supper at Mykonos. A jointly sponsored invited paper session was held in the scientific program of the SSC meeting, titled "Statistical Models for Discrete Longitudinal Data". The session featured Rachel Altman, Diana Miglioretti, and Rhonda Rosychuk and was well attended.

This web site has been updated and expanded to include two new sections. The new Book Club section highlights writings on issues relevant to the Committee on Women in Statistics. Mentoring resources have been a popular sentiment and internet mentoring services are listed in our new On-line Mentor Programs section.

Rhonda Rosychuk, University of Alberta and Julie Horrocks, University of Guelph

SSC 2004 Activities

The Caucus for Women in Statistics in collaboration with the Committee on Women in Statistics of the SSC hosted an informal reception on Sunday, May 30 from 17:00 to 18:00 in room AA-1221 of the Pavillon Andre-Aisenstadt. An executive meeting of the Caucus and Committee on Women in Statistics was held on Tuesday June 1 as 12:15 in the cafeteria. An invited session "Gender-Related Statistics in Education" was jointly sponsored by the Canadian Caucus for Women in Statistics and the Women in Statistics Committee of the SSC.

Julie Horrocks, University of Guelph

SSC 2003 Activities

The Caucus for Women in Statistics in collaboration with the Committee on Women in Statistics of the SSC will have an informal a get-together and dinner on Monday June 9, 2003, at 6:30 PM at the Turkish restaurant Anatolia's in Halifax. The restaurant is about 20 minutes walk from Dalhousie University campus and the Lord Nelson Hotel. Interested women and men are welcome. For more information, please contact Susana Rubin-Bleuer at rubisus@statcan.ca, or during June 7-11, 2003 at Lord Nelson Hotel.

We will also meet on Saturday June 7, 2003, at 7:15 PM at the Lord Nelson lobby to go out for dinner, after registration and name tag collection at the Lord Nelson lobby which starts at 7:00 PM. Students are especially welcome!

A jointly sponsored invited paper session will be held in the scientific program of the meeting, titled "Statistical Issues in Modern Biology". Tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, June 10 at 10:30 AM, the session will feature Jenny Bryan from UBC, Jinko Graham from SFU and Julie Horrocks from U of Guelph as speakers. For further information, contact Jeanette O'Hara Hines via johara@uwaterloo.ca.

Susana Rubin-Bleuer, Statistics Canada, and Jeanette O'Hara Hines, University of Waterloo

SSC 2002 Activities

At the SSC meetings in Hamilton the Canadian Section of the Caucus for Women and the SSC Committee on Women in Statistics sponsored an invited session titled Official Statistics. The session was organized by Nadia Ghazzali, Universite Laval and chaired by Cyntha Struthers, University of Waterloo. The three speakers were:

Cathy Cotton, Statistics Canada
Louise Bourque, l'Institut de la statistique du Quebec
Denise Lievesley, UNESCO Institute for Statistics

SSC 2001 Activities

The SSC/WNAR/IMS 2001 meeting in Burnaby featured two activities sponsored by the Canadian Section of the Caucus for Women in Statistics and the SSC Committee on Women in Statistics:

On Sunday evening after the Workshops and before the SSC reception, we went out for dinner at the Thai Garden Restaurant. This gave us an opportunity to meet old friends and make new acquaintances.

We also sponsored an invited scientific session on Likelihood. The three invited speakers were:
- Susan Murphy, University of Michigan
- Nan Laird, Harvard School of Public Health
- Nancy Reid, University of Toronto.

SSC 2000 Activities

The Caucus for Women in Statistics and the Committee on Women in Statistics had an informal "meeting" on Sunday, June 4 at the Haveli Restaurant, 39 Clarence St. at 6:00pm.

The Committee on Women in Statistics also sponsored a session on Statistics in Business on Tuesday, June 6, at the SSC 2000 conference.

SSC'99 Activities

The Canadian section of the Caucus for Women in Statistics sponsored, jointly with the SSC Committee on Women in Statistics, two events at the recent Statistical Society of Canada annual meetings in Regina in June. These were organized by Jeanette O'Hara Hines and Cyntha Struthers, both of the University of Waterloo.

On Sunday evening, we went out for a buffet dinner; 25-30 people had an enjoyable evening meeting new and old friends.

We also sponsored an invited session titled "Statistical Consulting as a Business: Reports from the Front Line". The three speakers, Janet McDougall, McDougall Scientific Ltd, East York ON, Robert Balshaw, Synectics Health Corporation, Vancouver BC and Janice Smith, Datasmith Solutions, Brampton ON, work either independently or as part of a private consulting firm. They discussed the concerns they must cope with in their jobs and the possible methods for doing so. Janet, who is president of a private consulting company which has been operating for a number of years with a staff of around 10, provided us with the seasoned consultant's point of view. Janice, on the other hand, just started her consulting company in the last few years and works on her own; she provided valuable information on starting up a company. Rob talked about his experience in the last year of going from academia to a private consulting firm, and how much he enjoys his new job in which he encounters a variety of problems and can also engage in research. The session was well attended (overflowing actually), and we had a number of people comment on how interesting and informative it was.

At the Committee on Women in Statistics buffet: Cyntha Struthers, Peter Macdonald, Jeanette O'Hara-Hines, Gordon Hines, David Bellhouse, John Braun, Karen Kopciuk, Natasha Wiebe, Tamara Arenovich, Don McLeish. Photo - L. Cowen

Cyntha Struthers, Andreas Sashegyi, Patrick Farrell, Jeanette O'Hara-Hines. Photo - L. Cowen

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