AASWOMEN Newsletter for September 23, 2016

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of September 23, 2016
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Elysse Voyer, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, and Maria Patterson

This week's issues:

1. "First" Impressions

2. Help SGMA Assess Institutional Gender Identity and Expression Policies

3. A New Graduate School Policy on Parental Accommodation from Northwestern University

4. Cards Against Humanity Scholarship Seeks to Send Women in STEM to College

5. How Neil DeGrasse Tyson Champions Women & Geeks In 'StarTalk' Season 3

6. Study shows unexpected path for women to major in science

7. Job Opportunities

8. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter

9. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter

10. Access to Past Issues

Help SGMA Assess Institutional Gender Identity and Expression Policies

At the American Astronomical Society (AAS) Diversity Summit last fall, its Committee for Sexual-Orientation and Gender Minorities in Astronomy (SGMA) decided to take on the project of improving institutional policies regarding gender identity and expression across the field of astronomy. We are starting that project with a request to readers of the Women in Astronomy blog to let us know the policies at their institution. I have set up a web survey to accept your answers. No personal information will be recorded.

"First" Impressions

For people who are not minoritized, sometimes it can be difficult to imagine what inclusion and exclusion feel like. Here I share two recent experiences of mine that led to very strong feelings of inclusion and exclusion. They are everyday moments. But because of my past experience, both of them were hard to miss. And both of them changed how I experienced the rest of my day, and the space that I inhabit at work. 

I recently attended a training program at my new institution. It was three days focused especially on teaching and mentoring. One of my workshops asked us to pick an adjective for how we’d like our class to perceive us. We were discussing the importance of first impressions (Apparently the first few minutes of class often set up how your students perceive you all the way up to evaluation time, so it is worth considering how you want to be seen.) We went around the room and I kept a running list/tally of adjectives. 

I went early. I picked “Challenging”. We’ll save that psychoanalysis for another day.

AASWomen Newsletter for September 16, 2016

AAS Committee on the Status of Women

Issue of September 16, 2016
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Elysse Voyer, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, and Maria Patterson

This week's issues:

1. Women on Spacecraft Missions: Are we moving towards parity with the percentage in the field?   
2. Sexual Harassment in the Sciences: A Call to Respond         
3. University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
4. The Science Ambassador Scholarship
5. White House women want to be in the room where it happens        
6. The Lenny Interview: Margaret Wertheim
7. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
8. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
9. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

Women on Spacecraft Missions: Are we moving towards parity with the percentage in the field?

The following blog post was written by Dr. Julie Rathbun, Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute and Professor of Physics at the University of Redlands. The post was originally posted at the Women in Planetary Science blog, and is cross-posted here.

The photo above was taken during the July 2016 meeting of the Science Team for the Europa Multiple Flyby mission. All of the women at the meeting (most of whom are members of the science team) wanted to celebrate the accomplishments of women scientists by taking this photo. It was shot after Dr. Margaret Kivelson was honored by the Project with the Monolith award. During her speech, Margie discussed the challenges she’d faced over her more than 50 years as a scientist, many of those due to being one of a very small number of women scientists. For more about her talk, see https://storify.com/LokiVolcano/margaret-kivelson-at-europa-psg.

AASWomen Newsletter for September 09, 2016

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of September 09, 2016
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Elysse Voyer, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, and Maria Patterson

This week's issues:

1. CSWA Chair = NASA Deputy Program Scientist for OSIRIS-REx = LAUNCH TODAY!

2. The Gender Factor in Conference Presentations

3. Female Scientists Turn to Data to Fight Lack of Representation on Panels

4. Do women in STEM careers suffer a ‘marriage market’ penalty?

5. On Being a Black Female Math Whiz During the Space Race

6. Job Opportunities

7. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

8. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

9. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

CSWA Chair = NASA Deputy Program Scientist for OSIRIS-REx = LAUNCH TODAY!

Christina Richey, chair of the CSWA, is participating today in the launch of NASA's OSIRIS-REx Mission as deputy program scientist at NASA Headquarters. OSIRIS-REx will journey to the carbonaceous asteroid Bennu to collect surface samples that may trace the earliest composition of our Solar System, including water and organic molecules. The mission will also map Bennu's surface and test the Yarkovsky effect. The launch is garnering lots of public interest as one of what could be a number of asteroid sampling and surveying missions supported by NASA.

Deputy Program Scientist for ORSIRIS-REx at NASA Headquarters Christina Richey speaks during a briefing on NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016 at NASA Headquarters in Washington. OSIRIS-REx is scheduled to launch on Sept. 8 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

In  this photo, Christina is showing a 3d model of Bennu; instructions on how to print one yourself are available to all. If you are curious about other scientists working on the mission, also check out this CSWA career profile of Harold C. Connolly Jr, a mission scientist for OSIRIS-REx.

You (and your friends) can watch the launch live today on NASA TV beginning at 5:30pm ET -- the actual launch is planned for 7:05pm ET.

Rock on, Christina!!