AASWomen Newsletter for July 21, 2017

AAS Committee on the Status of Women

Issue of July 21, 2017

eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, and Maria Patterson

This week's issues:

1. Worse than it seems

2. Why your brain hates other people and how to make it think differently

3. Gender and Physics Day

4. Girls set AP Computer Science record…skyrocketing growth outpaces boys

5. Jocelyn Bell Burnell wins President's Medal of the Institute of Physics

6. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

7. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

8. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

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AASWomen Newsletter for July 14, 2017

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of July 14, 2017
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, and Maria Patterson

This week's issues:

1. AAS press release: New Survey Highlights Gender, Racial Harassment in Astronomy

2. AAS Sustainability Committee seeking new members

3. Academia needs to confront sexism

4. Real Men Might Get Made Fun Of

5. Job Opportunities

6. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

7. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

8. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

AAS press release: New Survey Highlights Gender, Racial Harassment in Astronomy

Social scientists Kate Clancy (left) and Katherine Lee (left center) collaborated with space physicist/astrophysicist Erica Rodgers (right center) and planetary scientist Christina Richey (right) to conduct a study of workplace climate among planetary science and astronomy professionals. Credits: L. Brian Stauffer, Katherine Lee, Mark Heusinkveld & David Estrada Larrañeta/Explora, respectively. 

This AAS press release is based on a joint AGU-AAS press release:

Women of color working in astronomy and planetary science report more gender and racial harassment than any other group in the field, according to a new study revealing widespread harassment in these scientific disciplines.

AASWomen Newsletter for July 07, 2017

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of July 07, 2017
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, and Maria Patterson

This week's issues:

1. Career Profile: Planetary Scientist: Dr. Kelsi Singer

2. The myth about women in science? Bias at work in the study of gender inequality in STEM.

3. Report: In 2015, US institutions awarded most doctorates ever recorded

4. Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowships

5. Job Opportunities

6. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

7. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

8. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

Career Profile: Planetary Scientist: Dr. Kelsi Singer

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers, planetary scientists, etc. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.

Photo credit: Rayna Tedford

Below is our interview with Dr. Kelsi Singer, a planetary scientist who is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at Southwest Research Institute.

For access to all our Career Profile Project interviews, please visit http://aas.org/jobs/career-profiles. New Career Profiles are posted approximately every month.

AASWomen Newsletter for June 30, 2017

AAS Committee on the Status of Women

Issue of June 30, 2017

eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Christina Thomas, and Maria Patterson

This week's issues:

1. Women in Leadership: Networks         

2. Scholar Spotlight: Adrianna Perez

3. Astrobiology: Hunting aliens  

4. How science got women wrong

5. Job Opportunities

6. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

7. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

8. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

Women in Leadership: Networks

 As you make the transition from scientist to manager, you may realize that the technical and mathematical skills that got you where you are won’t help as much as you advance. Although (when mixed with a bit of intuition and common sense) they may be sufficient at lower levels, like department chair, group lead, or principal investigator, these abilities alone will not be enough as you move to higher levels. Even though your undergrad and graduate curricula were packed full of requirements, you may reach a point when you lament that you never took a management course. Your success will depend less and less on the skills that made you a successful scientist and more and more on your human competencies. In a community that is dominated by introverts, this is a particularly troubling realization, and an individual with even mild extroverted tendencies has a natural advantage. There is a joke I heard while I was working in the Astronomy Division at NSF. Question: How do you tell if someone is an extrovert? Answer: When they pass you in the hall, they look at your shoes. It is sort of funny only because it is so true. I worked on the Math and Physical Sciences floor – the directorate that includes Math, Physics, Chemistry, Materials, and Astronomy. I can’t tell you the number of times I passed someone in the hall, and they looked down. I found I had to really focus on keeping eye contact and saying something simple like, “Good morning.” So imagine how an individual in this community of introverts feels when they learn that their career advancement now depends on the one thing they were never good at (and never had to be) - their ability to develop effective working relationships with key individuals.