AASWomen Newsletter for July 19, 2019

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of July 19, 2019
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Maria Patterson, and JoEllen McBride

[AAS has migrated their email system to Microsoft Exchange, so please check your spam folder if you did not receive the newsletter this week. It is no longer possible to subscribe or unsubscribe to the AASWomen newsletter by means of Google Groups. We have updated our subscribe and unsubscribe instructions below. Please follow us on social media for updates and thank you for bearing with us as we work out all the kinks.
Twitter @AAS_Women Facebook https://bit.ly/2PkU9of

Margaret W. "Hap" Brennecke in 1964, Credit: NASA

This week's issues:

1. Your Memories of Dr. Margaret Burbidge

2. Margaret "Hap" Brennecke: The woman who welded Apollo's rockets

3. Women of Apollo

4. A Woman's Place is in Space: Meet Eight Asian American Women Reaching for the Stars

5. The Black Women Food Scientists Who Created Meals For Astronauts

6. To Make It to the Moon, Women Have to Escape Earth's Gender Bias

7. While NASA Was Landing on the Moon, Many African-Americans Sought Economic Justice Instead

8. Three generations of space experts react to the Moon landings

9. SETI Institute Collaborates with Girl Scouts to Develop New Space Science Badges

10. Science history: Esther Conwell 'jump-started the computer age'

11. The universal Universe or making astronomy inclusive

12. Jeffrey Epstein liked palling around with scientists - What do the think now?

13. How Coding Has Changed (And Not) For Women In The Past 30 Years

14. Girls' superb verbal skills may contribute to the gender gap in math

15. At STEM Competitions, Gender Norms Still Hold Girls Back

16. Astronomy Club Sets Netflix Sketch Comedy Series With Kenya Barris Producing

17. Job Opportunities

18. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

19. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

20. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

Your Memories of Dr. Margaret Burbidge

AP Photo | Annie Gracy [CC BY-SA 4.0] via Wikimedia Commons

In 1971, Margaret Burbidge refused to accept the AAS Council's Cannon Prize because "the prize, available only to women, was in itself discriminatory." The Council's response was to set up a committee, the "Special Committee on the Cannon Prize," which not only dealt with this issue but also recommended that the AAS review the status of women in astronomy. These events were the catalyst that started the Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy (CSWA).

On her 100th Birthday, August 12, the CSWA would like the community to share their memories of the astronomer who verified nucleosynthesis in stars, measured redshifts to some of the first quasars, and helped develop the Faint Object Spectrograph onboard the Hubble Space Telescope--among many other accomplishments. Please use the form below to reminisce. There is space to leave your name, institution, and job title, but these are not required. Your memories will be posted on the CSWA Women in Astronomy Blog on August 12 and shared with Dr. Burbidge.

Submit your memories at

https://forms.gle/s56ELEjHzsHz3VEaA

AASWomen Newsletter for July 12, 2019

AAS Committee on the Status of Women

Issue of July 12, 2019

eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Maria Patterson, JoEllen McBride, and Alessandra Aloisi

[AAS has migrated their email system to Microsoft Exchange, so please check your spam folder if you did not receive the newsletter this week. It is no longer possible to subscribe or unsubscribe to the AASWomen newsletter by means of Google Groups. We have updated our subscribe and unsubscribe instructions below. Please follow us on social media for updates and thank you for bearing with us as we work out all the kinks.

Twitter @AAS_Women, Facebook https://bit.ly/2PkU9of]

This week's issues:

1. Crosspost: Pre-registration Open for the Inclusive Astronomy 2 Conference

2. Register now to watch the first Astro2020 steering committee meeting!

3. Education Professional Development Mini-Grant Opportunity Now Open

4. Women are less supportive of space exploration – getting a woman on the Moon might change that

5. Astronaut Barbie has landed, and it’s one giant leap for women in STEM 

ESA Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti
and her Barbie (stylist.co.uk image)

6. How a decision-analysis tool helped one scientist couple make some tough career choices
7. These young scientists will shape the next 50 years of Moon research  

8. Queer voices in palaeontology  

9. How I lost my identity — and embraced a new one

10. Why Men Thought Women Weren’t Made to Vote

11. Who gets grant money? The (gendered) words decide.

12. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

13. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

14. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

Crosspost: Pre-registration Open for the Inclusive Astronomy 2 Conference

It has been four years since the 2015 Nashville Inclusive Astronomy meeting, an event that brought astronomers together with sociologists, policy makers, and leaders in the field to discuss issues affecting underrepresented groups in astronomy. The Nashville Recommendations, which emphasize equity and intersectionality, build upon a rich history of work to broaden participation and improve climates.

We now have the opportunity to bring together the astronomy community to discuss the current state of the profession and make recommendations for the 2020s and beyond. Specifically, we will discuss community expectations on inclusivity and representation, evaluate our progress towards meeting equity goals, and address the needs of marginalized groups in the workforce. We will advance these broad goals by focusing on barriers in professional development (e.g., training, jobs, promotion, tenure) and barriers to accessing resources (e.g., funding, telescopes, facilities, data).

AASWomen Newsletter for July 5, 2019

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of July 05, 2019

eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Maria Patterson, JoEllen McBride, and Alessandra Aloisi

[AAS has migrated their email system to Microsoft Exchange, so please check your spam folder if you did not receive the newsletter this week. It is no longer possible to subscribe or unsubscribe to the AASWomen newsletter by means of Google Groups. We have updated our subscribe and unsubscribe instructions below. Please follow us on social media for updates and thank you for bearing with us as we work out all the kinks.
Twitter @AAS_Women Facebook https://bit.ly/2PkU9of

Shawn Hitchcock (center) works with graduate students Fatima Olayemi Obe (left) and Marian Aba Addo, see item 4

This week's issues:

1. The Advocacy Axis

2. NASA changes how it divvies up telescope time to reduce gender bias

3. At 21, Ann Montgomery Became a Lead Engineer at NASA, Managing the Cameras and Other Crucial Gear Used on the Moon

4. Making invisible work in STEM more visible

5. Women feel inferior and less suited to Stem jobs than men

6. Katharine Gebbie

7. Unstoppable women: These 3 astronomy lovers will inspire you to reach for the stars

8. Teaching ingenuity

9. Job Opportunities

10. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

11. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

12. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

The Advocacy Axis

Adapted from a Plenary talk given at the 234th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

By Joan Schmelz, PhD

New high-profile sexual harassment cases continue to appear in the press almost daily. A few years ago, a cluster of these cases involved Astronomers. At the time, I decided to talk to the press, in part to help take the heat off of the Title IX complainants, several of whom wished to remain anonymous. Here’s one of my quotes from back then:

“We have to find a way to change the system - to take the pressure off the young women in the most vulnerable stages of their careers and shift it to the senior men, many of whom have admitted to knowing this ‘open secret’ for years if not decades.”

--Joan Schmelz (Oct 2015)

A strange thing happened as a result of that publicity. About a dozen senior male astronomers (individuals in our scientific community with the most privilege) sought me out to tell me that they had known about the harassment in one or more of these cases, but had never intervened. Here’s an abbreviated list of the reasons they gave for doing/saying nothing:

• It was none of my business
• I didn’t want to intrude
• I didn’t know what to do
• I thought I might make it worse
• It’s not my problem
• Boys will be boys

AASWomen Newsletter for June 28, 2019

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of June 28, 2019
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Maria Patterson, JoEllen McBride, and Alessandra Aloisi

[AAS has migrated their email system to Microsoft Exchange, so please check your spam folder if you did not receive the newsletter this week. It is no longer possible to subscribe or unsubscribe to the AASWomen newsletter by means of Google Groups. We have updated our subscribe and unsubscribe instructions below. Please follow us on social media for updates and thank you for bearing with us as we work out all the kinks.
Twitter @AAS_Women Facebook https://bit.ly/2PkU9of

This week's issues:

1. Crosspost: A fast-moving revolution: from Stonewall toward a more diverse scientific workforce

2. House Bill Seeks To Name Large Synoptic Survey Telescope For Astronomer Vera Rubin

3. Record-breaking Astronaut Peggy Whitson: ‘It’s an Exciting Time for Space Exploration’

4. Saydean Zeldin: Guiding Apollo’s engines

5. Elaine Denniston: The woman who corrected Apollo's code

6. It could take 118 years for female computer scientists to match publishing rates of male colleagues

7. People trust scientists, says landmark survey, but there are troubling trends

8. International Women in Engineering Day 2019: role models critical to women’s success

9. Richmond woman performs science experiment onstage, wins Miss Virginia 2019

10. AWIS Launches STEM Equity Community Platform with Elsevier's Support

11. What to Do When You’re the Only Woman in the Room

12. STEM Gap: No State Has More Women Than Men w/ Tech Degrees

13. Opinion: 10 Ways to Support New Mothers in STEM

14. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

15. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

16. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter