A personal recommendation for the AAS to collect data to determine participation of underrepresented groups

By members of the DPS Professional Culture and Climate Subcommittee

In order to determine how new policies affect the equitable participation of astronomers from all backgrounds, we propose that the AAS collect detailed demographic information on its members and use these data to understand the barriers for members of underrepresented groups. While the AAS workforce surveys do ask demographic information (Workforce Survey of 2016 US AAS Members Summary Results), they can not easily be compared to award or author information in the way a member database could. As shown below, collection of demographic data by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) has enabled studies addressing gender disparities in geosciences. Furthermore, the AGU has enacted policy changes based on these findings. Collection of demographic data by AAS would enable determination of areas that are lacking in gender representation, in addition to areas that are lacking in representation with respect to persons with disabilities, underrepresented minorities, etc. This would enable AAS to implement policy changes to enable equitable participation of astronomers from all backgrounds and to test if the new policies are effective.

AASWomen Newsletter for October 12, 2018

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of October 12, 2018
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, Maria Patterson, and JoEllen McBride

This week's issues:

1. Our Current Political Climate and the Confirmation Process: the Community Reacts

2. Reaching for the Stars Without an Invitation

3. Beyond the Numbers on Gender and Research

4. How Do You Find an Alien Ocean? Margaret Kivelson Figured It Out

5. Three Inspiring Role Models Embrace Modern Media To Close The STEM Gender Gap

6. Women occupied only 24% of STEM jobs in 2017 — but there's a way we can fix that

7. The Leaky Pipeline for Postdocs: A study of the time between receiving a PhD and securing a faculty job for male and female astronomers

8. Three Women in Science Who Broke the Glass Ceiling

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

Our Current Political Climate and the Confirmation Process: the Community Reacts

By Sarah Tuttle

The last few weeks have been difficult for many folks as a highly politicized confirmation process played out on Capitol Hill. Issues around gender and race swirled barely below the surface as we watched echoes of the past, with Anita Hill reminding us about how we were in some ways reenacting recent history (and in other ways dancing around it). For many of us, this pushed a lot of buttons and renewed memories of trauma even outside of the explicit scope of Dr. Blasey Ford’s Senate testimony – from alcoholic family members, to abusive partners, to harassment or assault at school and work.

It is a lot to carry.

I’ve collected a small number of responses from women throughout our field to give us some space to reflect, to be together in community even when we are many miles apart, and to acknowledge that sometimes the hardest part of our work isn’t the intellectual challenges of our research but existing in a world that resists making room for us to exist.

AASWomen Newsletter for October 05, 2018

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of October 05, 2018
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, Maria Patterson, and JoEllen McBride

This week's issues:

1. Donna Strickland and Frances Arnold win Nobel Prizes

2. What the Nobels are - and aren't - doing to encourage diversity

3. Women of Color in STEM programs research study

4. NAS gathering on preventing sexual harassment

5. Cern scientist: 'Physics built by men - not by invitation'

6. The alpha males of physics

7. California has a new law: No more all-male boards

8. Saving the World, One Science Fair at a Time

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

Donna Strickland and Frances Arnold win Nobel Prizes

The winners of the Nobel Prizes were announced this week and two women, Donna Strickland and Frances Arnold, have been honored for their extraordinary contributions to the sciences.

On Tuesday, Donna Strickland became the third woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. She's the first woman to win the prize in 55 years.

Here are a select number of articles about Dr. Strickland's win:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2018/10/02/nobel-prize-physics-awarded-tools-made-light-first-woman-years-honored/?utm_term=.a38c57221bfd

http://time.com/5412840/donna-strickland-nobel-prize-physics/

AASWomen Newsletter for September 28, 2018

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of September 28, 2018
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, Maria Patterson, and JoEllen McBride

This week's issues:

1. Women in Space Conference

2. A Hologram of the First Woman of Color in Space Debuted on Museum Day

3. Women much less likely to ask questions in academic seminars than men

4. Portrayals of female STEM characters in TV and film haven't improved in 10 years

5. The People Who Could Have Done Science Didn't

6. A lack of digital skills could be hurting young professional women

7. Google's Notable Women app uses AR to put women on any US bill

8. Job Opportunities

9. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

10. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

11. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

AASWomen Newsletter for September 21, 2018

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of September 21, 2018
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, Maria Patterson, and JoEllen McBride

This week's issues:

1. Career Profile: Executive Director

2. Exploring how gender figures the identity trajectories of two doctoral students in observational astrophysics

3. AAAS establishes policy whereby Fellow status can be revoked

4. In the aftermath of #MeToo, which names in science should be replaced?

5. Science Walks, Money Talks

6. New analysis suggests women's success in STEM Ph.D. programs has much to do with having female peers, especially in their first year in graduate school

7. Isolated female students more likely to drop out of PhD programmes

8. How female scientists can confront gender bias in the workplace

9. Not One More Generation: Women in Science Take On Sexual Harassment

10. A Gender Scholar's Visit to ESOF 2018: She Came, She Saw, She Ranted

11. Men vs. Women speaking time in conference calls and colloquiums

12. Job Opportunities

13. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

14. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

15. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter