Anonymous billionaire pledges to support congressive STEMM
A departure from ‘science as usual’ would focus on society and community, emphasize interdependence and connection, and promote broader thinking. A new foundation will bring ‘congressive’ STEMM into the mainstream.
By Janet G. Hering and Patricia A. Maurice
1 April 2025, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15090252
For decades, higher education and research institutions have relied on similarities in individuals’ backgrounds and experiences as a proxy for shared values and a predictor of expected behavior. The characterization of particular behaviors and attitudes as typically masculine or feminine, however, contradicts the reality that most people exhibit a range of these ‘typical’ traits. Moreover, certain similarities in backgrounds and experiences (for example, the experience of growing up female) is no guarantee of specific values or patterns of behavior. In her 2020 book, x + y – A Mathematician's Manifesto for Rethinking Gender [1], Eugenia Cheng focuses on a gender-neutral characterization of traits. She defines congressive behavior as: focusing on society and community over self, taking others into account, emphasizing interdependence and connection, being more collaborative than competitive, and tending toward broader thinking. These attributes correspond to being self-confident when one is well-prepared and/or has received external validation and to not being self-confident when one is ill-prepared or has received negative feedback (see graphic). Cheng argues that congressive traits and behavior are what STEMM needs. As we wrote in our post It’s Not Pie [2], transforming our institutions “into better places to work is ultimately good for everyone regardless of race, gender, age, economic status, etc. It’s not pie that has to be cut into more, ever-smaller slices.” A gender neutral approach could contribute to this transformation. Cheng’s ideas are echoed (though without the same terminology) in the 2024 book Higher Expectations: How to Survive Academia, Make it Better for Others, and Transform the University, which authors Roberta Hawkins and Leslie Kern discussed in their guest post [3]. Similar ideas underlie efforts such as the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) [4] and the University of Bern’s Better Science Initiative [5].
Bringing congressive STEMM into the mainstream
To promote congressive behavior in STEMM a break is needed with conventional performance indicators and incentives that underlie the hyper-competitive, individualistic attitudes pervading high-ranking STEMM institutions. It is the goal of the new foundation to build a community of individuals committed to congressive STEMM.
The congressive STEMM community will welcome individuals who practice and promote congressive behavior and attitudes in STEMM and who further support the principles that STEMM should serve the public good and that diverse perspectives are needed in STEMM not only to identify the full range of solutions to pressing societal problems but also to define those problems. As we wrote in a previous post [6] “Science and technology play an increasingly central role in the world we share. All people deserve to benefit from, and potentially contribute to, STEMM advances without constraints of discrimination based on factors such as race, ethnicity, gender/gender identity, or socioeconomic status.”
Does this sound attractive to you? If so, please send us your name and LinkedIn profile (if available) at: epistimiblog@gmail.com.
Our billionaire sponsor
In April 2023, there were 337 women worth over a billion dollars [7]. Many of them are using their wealth to support women and girls. For one example, read our post [8] on the book The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World by Melinda French Gates [9]. Some other wealthy women who are supporting women and girls, science, and/or social justice are listed in note [10]. Was one of these women our anonymous billionaire? Sadly, no – April Fool’s – there is no billionaire donor for this much needed congressive STEMM foundation.
Concluding comment and questions for further thought and discussion
This post started as just an April Fool’s joke but writing it inspired us to consider how a congressive STEMM community could develop. We think that much could be done even without the level of financial resources promised in the title of this prank post.
Here are some questions to stimulate further thought and discussion:
· Are you already engaged in promoting congressive behaviors and attitudes in STEMM (even if you don’t use that term)? If so, what is your experience with this?
· Are you involved with organizations that share and promote congressive behaviors and attitudes in STEMM? If so, please let us know.
· If an effort to build a congressive STEMM community is established (with or without a foundation), would you like to be part of it? If so, please send us an email at: epistimiblog@gmail.com.
Notes and references cited
[1] Eugenia Cheng (2020) x + y – A Mathematician's Manifesto for Rethinking Gender. Profile Books, 260 pp.
[5] https://betterscience.ch/en/#/
[6] https://www.epistimi.org/blog/a-trip-to-paris-and-the-rights-of-women-in-stemm
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_billionaires
[8] https://www.epistimi.org/blog/the-moment-of-lift-by-melinda-gates
[9] Gates, M. (2019) The Moment of Lift: Empowering Women Changes the World, Bluebird (UK edition), 273 pp.
[10] (e.g., listed alphabetically) Lyda Hill (https://www.lydahillphilanthropies.org/), Atalanti Moquette (https://givingwomen.ch/), Carolina Müller-Möhl (https://mm-foundation.org/en/team/carolina-mueller-moehl/), MacKenizie Scott (https://yieldgiving.com/), Alice Walton (https://alicelwaltonfoundation.org/). See also: https://www.womensfundingnetwork.org/who-we-are/our-members/member-directory/