Thursday, November 3, 2011

AASWomen for October 28, 2011

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of October 28, 2011
eds. Joan Schmelz, Caroline Simpson, and Michele Montgomery

This week's issues:

1. Advice for an Anonymous Individual

2. The Life Scientific: Jocelyn Bell-Burnell

3. Offensive Article in Nature

4. Professional Development at AAS 219 in Austin

5. Women in Science: The Gender Divide Remains

6. White House Video with Advice for Young Women Interested in Science

7. Program Inspiring Young Women to Discover Science

8. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN Newsletter

9. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN Newsletter

10. Access to Past Issues of the AASWOMEN Newsletter


1. Advice for an Anonymous Individual
From: Joan Schmelz [jschmelz_at_memphis.edu]

[The editors of the AASWOMEN newsletter received this query from an individual who wished to remain anonymous. Please send replied to the address above - Eds.]

On the heels of a question earlier this year about dealing with sexual harassment and other unwanted behaviors, there was a lot of discussion about how to address it in the professional environment, and about the ongoing challenges of doing so. But there is another side to this: the woman or man who has to live with what has happened to her or him. What if you have been a victim of unwanted sexual behavior/abuse and need to deal with the emotional aspects of the fall out? What if you don't want to leave the field? How do you handle it? Astronomy is a small world; it can be hard to escape the aggressor. I'm not sure there is an easy answer here, besides go to therapy (which is fraught with its own issues -- a therapist may not understand the academic world and may not be affordable for an undergraduate or postdoc). A naive suggestion comes to mind -- which is that there ought to be a help line for professional and academic women and men who have survived these situations. Does anyone know of one?

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2. The Life Scientific: Jocelyn Bell-Burnell
From: Claire Foullon [claire.foullon@warwick.ac.uk]

You may like to listen to this 30-min BBC radio interview of Jocelyn Bell-Burnell, which was broadcasted recently:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/science-discovery/jocelyn-bell-burnell

or

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016812j

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3. Offensive Article in Nature
From: AASWOMEN editors

Several people have pointed out this offensive article in Nature:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v477/n7366/full/477626a.html

One wonders what the editors were thinking! If you would like to let Nature know what you think about this article, the list of editors is here:

http://www.nature.com/nature/about/editors

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4. Professional Development at AAS 219 in Austin
From: L. Trouille_at_Women_in_Astronomy_Blog, Oct 25, 2011

Guest post by Kelle Cruz, AAS Employment Committee

The 219th AAS Meeting in Austin, TX from January 8-12, 2012 is coming up, and as continued tradition, thanks to the growing community involvement and NSF funding, professional development workshops, seminars, and special sessions will once again be offered. This year, more than ever!

The interactive workshops offered on Sunday are:

-Becoming a more effective research mentor; -Structuring your scientific paper; -Science tools for data intensive astronomy.

On Monday, there are two Career Workshops. On Tuesday, there will be a workshop on Personal Finance in Turbulent Times.

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5. Women in Science: The Gender Divide Remains
From: Joan Schmelz [jschmelz_at_memphis.edu]

Prihatha Narasimmaraj, a staff writer for the Daily Princetonian, published this article on Oct 21:

University President Shirley Tilghman still remembers her freshman physics lab.

"We were working with a vacuum tube, and, like a foolish person, I touched it and got an electric shock," Tilghman recalled. "The professor happened to be walking by and said, 'That's why there are no girls in physics.' "

She could have brushed off the comment, though it stung. But the fact remained that, for Tilghman and her female peers, "those kinds of things happened - not every day, but enough that if you didn't believe you had the capacity to be a female scientist, they would start breaking you down."

Since becoming University president in 2001 - the first woman to do so, and only the second in the Ivy League - Tilghman has devoted a significant amount of attention to the issue she faced as a college student and budding scientist: the dearth of women in science and engineering disciplines.

At the University and across the nation, the number of women in science and engineering fields has continued to climb in recent years. While the Class of 1973 graduated only one woman from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Class of 2015 female enrollment in the B.S.E. program currently stands at 38 percent, according to Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs at the School of Engineering and Applied Science Peter Bogucki. In the molecular biology and ecology and evolutionary biology departments, female students sometimes outnumber males.

To read more:

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2011/10/21/29147

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6. White House Video with Advice for Young Women Interested in Science
From: WIPHYS for Oct 27, 2011

The White House has published a video with advice for young women interested in science. The Presidential Early Career Scientists and Engineer Honorees share their advice to young women interested in getting involved in Science, Engineering, Math or Technology. View the video here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2011/10/21/advice-young-women-interested-science

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7. Program Inspiring Young Women to Discover Science
From: Joan Schmelz [jschmelz_at_memphis.edu]

Karen Kucher wrote this article for Sign On San Diego on Oct 24:

Julia Roche has examined ultrasound images and counted sperm at an in-vitro fertilization clinic. She's worked with robots and helped study how a protein found in sea urchin embryos could lead to patients getting lower doses of chemotherapy.

Julia, 17, was able to have such rich, hands-on experiences not at her high school but through a special program in San Diego County that encourages young women to go into science, technology, engineering and math fields.

Girls apply for the BEWiSE program when they are in middle school and participate in Saturday workshops and summer camp programs through the end of high school.

Students work closely with medical doctors, renowned researchers and hi-tech professionals, many of whom are women, to not only learn science but to gain inspiration for their futures.

To read more:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/oct/24/program-inspiring-young-women-to-discover-science

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8. How to Submit

To submit an item to the AASWOMEN newsletter, including replies to topics, send email to

aaswomen_at_aas.org .

All material will be posted unless you tell us otherwise, including your email address.

Please remember to replace "_at_" in the e-mail address above.

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9. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter, please fill in the required information at:

http://lists.aas.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aaswlist .

If you experience any problems, please email itdept_at_aas.org

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10. Access to Past Issues

http://www.aas.org/cswa/AASWOMEN.html

Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.

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