C2ST’s Science in the City Gala 2016

Please join C2ST for our sixth annual fundraiser gala, Science in the City, on Thursday, May 5, 2016 at UI Labs on Goose Island from 5:00 to 9:00 PM.

Enjoy stimulating conversation with leaders of Chicago’s scientific, business and philanthropic community, take a tour of the digital manufacturing lab** and enjoy a plated dinner. Chicago-based distillery KOVAL will also be hosting a tasting of its spirits. Proceeds from this event will support C2ST’s programming efforts to educate the public on scientific issues of critical importance.

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In the past decade, we’ve heard a lot about the innate differences between males and females. So we’ve come to accept that boys can’t focus in a classroom and girls are obsessed with relationships: “That’s just the way they’re built.”

Lise Eliot, Ph.D., argues that infant brains are so malleable that small differences at birth become amplified over time, as parents, teachers, peers—and the culture at large—unwittingly reinforce gender stereotypes. Of course, genes and hormones play a role in creating boy-girl differences, but they are only the beginning. Social factors, such as how we speak to our sons and daughters and whether we encourage their physical adventurousness, are proving to be far more powerful than we previously realized. As a parent, Eliot understands the difficulty of bucking gender expectations, but also the value of doing so.

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