North America | Canada | Science

McGill astrophysicist is first woman to win Canada’s top science award

A McGill University astrophysicist known for her exacting studies of some of the strangest and most powerful stars in the universe has won the Gerhard Herzberg Gold Medal, Canada’s top science prize. Victoria Kaspi, director of the McGill Space Institute, is the first woman to claim the prestigious award in its 25-year history, a startling reminder of the overwhelming gender imbalance that persists at the highest levels of Canadian academia. A dearth of female professors in science faculties across Canada helps explain why it has taken so long for a woman to win the Herzberg gold medal, Dr

North America | Canada | Culture

Doctors warned not to encourage young women to freeze their eggs in new medical journal article

Source: National Post

Doctors are being warned not to encourage young women to freeze their eggs as a way to avoid “future regret,” says a just-published article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that argues it risks perpetuating expectations that being a mother is central to being a woman. “Social egg freezing uses medical technology to respond to a non-medical problem — natural aging,” the authors of the CMAJ analysis write in a paper published Monday, which was intended to help family doctors advise women contemplating egg banking. Growing numbers of Canadian women are seeking “social