Now many of you (some of you? anyone?) might remember that in August we asked for your help . FairerScience friends and geoscientists Kim Hannula and Anne Jefferson were interested in the role that geoscience and women in science blogs played in the lives of geoscientists. They asked Zuska and me if we wanted to be involved (and of course we did). So we set up an on-line survey and asked you all to respond. And thank you- we got 102 responses and Kim presented the results at the GSA Annual Meeting in October.

Kim has done a great job writing up the results. So go on over and read them. Here are some tidbits to get you to read the whole thing:

In general, women tended to agree that reading blogs made their experience more normal (ave = 2.20, std dev = 1.05), that reading blogs told them what work as a geo/environmental scientist is like (ave = 2.37, std dev = 0.97), and that reading blogs tells them what it is like to be a woman scientist (ave = 2.18, std dev = 1.02), but are more neutral about the effect of reading blogs on their career interests.

We found some (for social science research) darned high correlations (0.56 to 0.64, among the following statements:

* "Reading blogs makes my experience seem more normal."
* "Reading blogs tells me what it is like to be a woman scientist."
* "[Reading blogs] I feel more connected to other women scientists."
* "[Reading blogs] I find a greater variety of role models than I find in my real life."

Yes-- this whole blog thing does appear to be making a difference. so go read the results.