AASWomen for March 15, 2013

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of March 15, 2013
eds. Caroline Simpson, Michele M. Montgomery, Daryl Haggard, and Nick Murphy

This week's issues:

1. Top 10 Ways to be a Better Advisor to Graduate Students

2. Academia [and the "endogamous" marriage habits of physicists]

3. Think About Expectations for Women in Undergraduate Science

4. National Women's History Month

5. NSF Report: Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science

6. Women in Science: Women's Work

7. NSF: ‪Innovation in Graduate Education Challenge‬

8. Women in Math and Science Quiz

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

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1. Top 10 Ways to be a Better Advisor to Graduate Students
From: J. Schmelz via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

A graduate student recently asked me for advice on how to deal with problems she was having with her research advisor. It occurred to me that I had already written extensively on this very subject. It was one of the first tasks I took on when I became a CSWA member and an editor of the AASWOMEN Newsletter. In fact, the Top 10 Ways to be a BetterAdvisor for Graduate Students was the issue that inspired the CSWA Adviceweb page, but that was back in 2006! A whole generation of grad students had come and gone, but the advice we came up with back then still appears to be relevant. The graduate student mentioned above thought it was helpful for her case.

CSWA members discussed ways to make sure this advice remained available to the current generation of grad students and advisors. We decided to try a once-per-month blog post, i.e., an advice column. We're starting with the Top 10 Ways to be a Better Advisor for Graduate Students. If you have points to add to our Top 10 list or other topics that we should cover in future posts, please leave a comment or contact any CSWA member.

Top 10 Ways to be a Better Advisor for Graduate Students

1. Try to see each student as an individual; they will all have different backgrounds, talents, and goals. Do not expect them to be 'just like you' or like people you work with. It is crucial to realize just how important their work with you will be to their career.

2. You are responsible for guiding your students' research: helping them to select a topic, write a research proposal, perform the research, evaluate it critically, and write the dissertation. Set up a weekly meeting with your thesis advisee to give *constructive* (not personal; not necessarily positive) feedback on research work.

3. Identify student's strengths and build on them; identify weaknesses and help students overcome them..

To read more and the rest of the list, please see

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

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2. Academia [and the "endogamous" marriage habits of physicists]
From: Annika Peter via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

A number of studies indicate that, at the faculty level, a large proportion of women physicists and astronomers are partnered with other academic scientists (especially other physicists!). The exact numbers are hard to come by---a lot of the time, all physical scientists are lumped together in studies, even though there are hints that there are major differences across fields (with Stanford's Clayman Institute for Gender Research finding that physicists have the most "endogamous" marriage habits)..if you lump all physical science faculty together, one finds large differences in the partnering and child-rearing patterns of men and women. A study referenced in this article shows that women scientists are more than three times more likely than their male counterparts to be married to someone who also holds a science PhD. Women science professors are far more likely than their male counterparts to be single or have no children. When women science professors are partnered, they are far more likely than men to have a "two-body problem".

To read on the "endogamous" marriage habits of physicists, please see

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

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3. Think About Expectations for Women in Undergraduate Science
From: Michele M. Montgomery [montgomery_at_physics.ucf.edu]

Marie-Claire Shanahan recently wrote an article for Insider Higher ED on 'Taking time to think about expectations for women in undergraduate science.' In the article, she discusses why students come to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and why they leave. She discusses interactions students have in their daily lives with professors and their peers and how this daily interaction in the high school years shapes their choices for college fields of study. To read about the studies and outcomes regarding gender and the students' physics identities, please see:

http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/university-venus/taking-time-think-about-expectations-women-undergraduate-science

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4. National Women's History Month
From: WIPHYS, March 11, 2013

The 2013 National Women's History Month theme is on women in STEM. Entitled 'Women Inspiring Innovation through Imagination,' the theme highlights generations of women in American history who have made extraordinary contributions to the STEM fields. To see the list and read more, please visit:

http://www.nwhp.org

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5. NSF Report: Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Scienc
From: Michele M. Montgomery [montgomery_at_physics.ucf.edu]

NSF 13-304, a biennial report on 'Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science in Engineering,' was released in February 2013. The report provides statistics about enrollment, field, employment status, occupation, academic employment, and persons with disabilities. The digest-version, data tables, additional resources, and the download can be found here

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/2013/start.cfm

but highlights are provided below.

- Women are less likely than men to enroll full time as undergraduates - In most fields, women's participation has risen since 1991, with women's participation highest in psychology of the science and engineering fields - The science and engineering workforce is largely white and male - Women represent less than 1/4 of all full-time, full professors, although the share has risen since 1993

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6. Women in Science: Women's Work
From: Maryam Modjaz [mmodjaz_nyu_edu}

This special section in "Nature" and its accompanying articles may be of interest to the AASWOMEN readers.

[The article finds that science remains institutionally sexist, and much work is still needed to achieve gender equality in science. To read about women's pay, promotions, winning of grants, etc., despite progress, and the hard look Nature is taking on the gender gap and what is being done, please click on the link below.]

http://www.nature.com/news/women-in-science-women-s-work-1.12547

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7. NSF: ‪Innovation in Graduate Education Challenge‬
From: Michele M. Montgomery [montgomery_at_physics.ucf.edu]

Calling Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Graduate Students:

Do you have an idea on how to improve STEM graduate education or graduate training? If so, the National Science Foundation (NSF) wants to hear from you! Their Innovation in Graduate Education Challenge calls for entries from currently enrolled STEM graduate students/teams to submit innovative ideas to prepare today's graduate students for tomorrow's opportunities and challenges and ideas to improve graduate education and professional development. Target audiences of these ideas include students, faculty, departments, institutions, professional societies, and/or federal agencies, and winning ideas will receive prizes between $1000 and $3000.

For more information and to submit by April 15, please see

www.nsf.gov/gradchallenge/

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8. Women in Math and Science Quiz
From: Michele M. Montgomery [montgomery_at_physics.ucf.edu]

As part of National Women's History Month, a fun quiz has been developed to test your knowledge of women in history who have made changes in math and science. To test your knowledge, please see the 'Women in Math and Science' quiz at

http://www.nwhp.org/resourcecenter/womenwhoworkedforpeace.php#math

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9. Job Opportunities

For those interested in increasing excellence and diversity in their organizations, a list of resources and advice is here:

http://www.aas.org/cswa/diversity.html#howtoincrease

- Visiting Assistant Professor position, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California http://www.sonoma.edu/aa/fa/prospective/visiting_professor.html

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10. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter

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.

When submitting a job posting for inclusion in the newsletter, please include a one-line description and a link to the full job posting.

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

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11. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter

Join AAS Women List by email:

Send email to aaswlist+subscribe_at_aas.org from the address you want to have subscribed. You can leave the subject and message blank if you like.

Be sure to follow the instructions in the confirmation email. (Just reply back to the email list)

To unsubscribe by email:

Send email to aawlist+unsubscribe_at_aas.org from the address you want to have UNsubscribed. You can leave the subject and message blank if you like.

To join or leave AASWomen via web, or change your membership settings:

https://groups.google.com/a/aas.org/group/aaswlist

You will have to create a Google Account if you do not already have one, using https://accounts.google.com/newaccount?hl=en

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12. Access to Past Issues

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

Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.

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