Issue of June 7, 2013
eds. Caroline Simpson, Michele M. Montgomery, Daryl Haggard, and Nick Murphy
This week's issues:
1. Two Years at Lick Observatory
2. Career Profile: From Astronomer to Tenure-Track Faculty
3. 'Women Programmers' and the Gender Bias in Science
4. Postdoc Pay: A Women's Issue
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
1. Two Years at Lick Observatory
From: Joan Schmelz and Sethanne Howard via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
Sethanne Howard blogs about her two years as an "astronomical assistant" at Lick Observatory in the 1960's.
"I came to Lick in the summer of 1965. In those days, observatories hired recent college graduates as “astronomical assistants” (these are not night assistants). Each assistant was assigned to a staff astronomer to learn the trade and skills of astronomy. We lived in the dorm and ate in the dorm cafeteria. And once a week we would gather around the one television in the dorm to watch Mission Impossible. (We also sat on the parapet around the Main Building and rolled old tires down the mountain, but you did not hear that from me.) The tenure of an assistant was two years max. Then the person was expected to enter graduate school. I was the next to last assistant hired at Lick. There are no more astronomical assistants."
To read more, please see:
http://www.womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2013/06/two-years-at-lick-observatory.html#more
Back to top.2. Career Profile: From Astronomer to Tenure-Track Faculty
From: Laura Trouille via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.
Below is our interview with Meredith Hughes, an astronomer turned professor. She is a first-year, tenure track faculty at Wesleyan University, an undergraduate focused institution with a master's program in astronomy.
To read more, please see:
http://www.womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2013/06/career-profile-astronomer-to-tenure.html
Back to top.3. 'Women Programmers' and the Gender Bias in Science
From: Caroline Simpson [simpsonc_at_fiu.edu]
Sue V. Rosser blogs about Ellen Ullman's recent opinion piece "How to Be a Woman Programmer."
After reading the recent opinion piece “How to Be a ‘Woman Programmer’” by Ellen Ullman in the New York Times Sunday Review, I had two primary thoughts and reactions. Particularly as I neared the end of the article, where the barriers faced by women in technology were discussed, I was reminded of the interviews I had conducted in Silicon Valley and the metro New York area that reinforced exactly what Ullman said about why women patented at vastly lower rates than men. The percentage of women granted patents ranks significantly lower than that of their male peers in all disciplines, countries and sectors; it also ranks very low relative to the percentage of women in a specific scientific or technical field.
[...] In contrast to the men I interviewed, all of the women knew what I meant right away when I raised the issue of the gender gap in patenting. They also understood how the gap served as a deterrent for women’s career advancement.
Read the entire article at http://www.fromthesquare.org/?p=4935
Back to top.4. Postdoc Pay: A Women's Issue
From: Caroline Simpson via Inside Higher Ed
Jennifer Bussell on insidehighered.com writes:
[...] Academic science offers a special case of the more general problem of women’s underrepresentation at the top of highly competitive careers. This is because the problem we face as women in science is actually most acute at one specific career stage: the postdoc. Survey data show that women mostly opt out of academic science just before or during postdoctoral training. Not coincidentally, this is exactly when they have children.
Given that the average age of a Ph.D. awardee is 31, women postdocs fall somewhere on the sharply declining portion of the female fertility curve.
Back to top.5. Women in Science Wednesday
From: Caroline Simpson [simpsonc_at_fiu.edu]
Every Wednesday, the Smithsonian Bigger Picture blog features a historical woman in science:
http://siarchives.si.edu/blog/tag/women-science-wednesday
Back to top.6. App Camp for Girls
From: Kevin Marvel [kevin.marvel_at_aas.org]
App Camp For Girls wants to address the gender imbalance among software developers by giving girls the chance to learn how to build apps, to be inspired by women instructors, and to get exposure to software development as a career.
This weeklong camp for girls aged 12 to 14 covers the process from brainstorming an app idea to marketing the finished app. The girls are coached by volunteer female experts in software development, design, testing, support and marketing.
Back to top.7. 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.
Back to top.8. 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:
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You will have to create a Google Account if you do not already have one, using
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Google Groups Subscribe Help:
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Back to top.9. Access to Past Issues
http://www.aas.org/cswa/AASWOMEN.html
Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.
Back to top.
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