The term gender gap refers to differences between women and men in terms of their participation, rights, pay, benefits and access in their personal and professional lives. In the sciences, including chemistry, a gender gap continues to exist. In 2017, a three-year project, funded by the International Science Council, ISC, was established by ten international scientific unions and organizations in the natural sciences, computing and mathematics to collect data to quantify the gender gap in the sciences and to develop recommendations for improvements. The project, titled, “A Global Approach to the Gender Gap in Mathematical, Computing and Natural Sciences:  How to Measure It, How to Reduce It?”,  included a global survey to identify and measure differences between the experiences of women and men in their educational and employment experiences and in their personal lives; a study of patterns of women’s authorship of books and articles in scientific journals; and development of a worldwide database of good practices for encouraging and supporting girls and women to pursue careers in the sciences. Recommendations for increasing participation of women were aimed toward teachers and parents, scientific unions, and local and national organizations. The ISC Gender Gap project ended in 2019, but current work across the sciences builds upon the project’s results. A new organization, the Standing Committee for Gender Equality in Science, SCGES, has been established, and its early work includes a public statement on the effects of the global Covid 19 pandemic on women’s careers. In IUPAC, the gender gap project survey results from respondents in the chemical sciences are being analyzed in detail, and a list of good practices is being assembled to encourage girls and women to consider chemistry-related careers. An international group of scientific publishers is developing metrics and processes for monitoring the experiences of women authors throughout the submission and peer review processes.

NCW is right around the corner!  This year's National Chemistry Weeks Theme stems around the concepts of Kinetics.  This talk will help teachers get ready to celebrate the week with the many opportunities that the local section has to offer.  Even if you are not a teacher and want to get you child excited about chemistry, come and find out ways to do easy, inexpensive activities to do at home that relate to this year’s theme.  During the talk, you will also be able to find out where you will be able to see the local section in the month of October to help celebrate the career we all love.

BIOGRAPHY OF PRE-DINNER SPEAKER:
Ms. Sherri Conn Rukes is currently teaching AP Chemistry and chemistry honors at Libertyville High School in Libertyville, IL. During her teaching career, she has taught a wide range of classes from all levels of Physics, Chemistry and Physical Science. She earned a B.S. in Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics from the University of Illinois in Champaign Urbana and an M.S. in Education from NOVA Southeastern University in Florida. Sherri has also done research at Northwestern University in Material Science for several summers. Some of the topics researched was on the degradation of multi- walled nanotubes (MWNT) in a tri-block co-polymer, efficiency of solid oxide fuel cells, and two projects with the conservation of famous artwork – George Seurat’s A Sunday of La Grande Jatte and paints which Picasso used. Her research has been published and sited in many journals. She was a Polymer Ambassador, a past president for AACT (American Association of Chemistry Teacher), chair for the local section and a 2016 Golden Apple Fellow. This year, Sherri received the Emerging Star Award, the Chicago Section volunteer of the year award and became an ACS Fellow.   Sherri has presented several times for American Chemical Society (ACS), the National Science Teachers association (NSTA), and varsity of state conferences.