Issue of July 12, 2013
eds. Michele M. Montgomery, Daryl Haggard, & Nick Murphy
This week's issues:
1. Professional communities, barriers to inclusion, and the value of a posse
2. 2 Careers, 2 Kids, 1 Marriage: part 1
4. Exhibition Exalts Female Scientists – The Invisible Women of Science
6. Soapbox Science by the Thames
7. Stella, a play about women, their men and astronomy
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. Professional communities, barriers to inclusion, and the value of a posse
From: Nancy Morrison <NMorris_at_UTNet.UToledo.Edu>
Janet Stemwedel has posted a very nice article in the Scientific American blog "Doing Good Science" on the subject of diversity in science, which I learned about via a tweet from Peter Edmonds (_at_peteredmonds). Here's a sample:
'People who work very hard to be part of a professional community despite systemic barriers ... need a posse. They need others in the community who are unwilling to sacrifice their values — or the well-being of less powerful people who share those values — to take consistent stands against behaviors that create barriers and that undermine the shared work of the community.
'These stands needn't be huge heroic gestures. It could be as simple as reliably being that guy who asks for better gender balance in planning seminars, or who reacts to casual sexist banter with, "Dude, not cool!" It could take the form of asking about policies that might lessen barriers, and taking on some of the work involved in creating or implementing them.
'It could be listening to your women colleagues when they describe what it has been like for them within your professional community and assuming the default position of believing them, rather than looking for possible ways they must have misunderstood their own experiences.'
To read the full post:
Back to top.2. 2 Careers, 2 Kids, 1 Marriage: part 1
From: Neil Gehrels via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
My wife, Ellen, and I are both scientists, married in graduate school, got jobs in the same city, had two kids and survived to tell about it. Here is the story of our schooling and jobs. Next time, I'll write about childrearing.
We were both graduate students at Caltech, living in the grad student dorm. There were 3 women and 60 men who wanted to live in the dorm, so the solution in those days was to simply put the 3 women in the men's dorm. More than a little social pressure on the women, but the men tried to be considerate.
To read more, please see
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2013/07/2-careers-2-kids-1-marriage-part-1.html
Back to top.3. Chairing Review Panels
From: Joan Schmelz via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
Enough time has gone by that I can now tell this story without fear of breaching confidentiality. I "recently" chaired a NASA proposal review panel. The identity of the panel members is generally confidential; you don’t know the participants ahead of time, and you don’t discuss the results after the panel business is complete. I have participated in these reviews since I started in solar physics -- almost 25 years ago. My name comes up every two or three years, and I head to DC. The panel spends several days reviewing proposals, and comes up with a ranking for NASA. The process usually works pretty well.
In all the years I have been doing this, I have never been part of a panel that was chaired by a woman.
To read more, please see
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2013/07/chairing-review-panels.html
Back to top.4. Exhibition Exalts Female Scientists – The Invisible Women of Science
From: Daryl Haggard [dhaggard_at_northwestern.edu]
Excerpt from the blog Pandagon.net:
Scientists, an exhibition opening on Monday at the Royal Society as part of its Summer Science Exhibition, raises the profile of accomplished women scientists.
Women in science have an image problem. It is not so much deciding whether they should aspire to the hard image of being a scientist or the soft image of being feminine, it is the more serious problem of invisibility. Nowhere is this more obvious than in our august institutions, our imposing portrait galleries and grand museums. There is a dearth of dignified portraits of women scientists produced by distinguished artists.
To read more, please see
http://www.pandagon.net/2013/07/exhibition-exalts-female-scientists-the-invisible-women-of-science
Back to top.5. Grit and Sisu
From: Ed Bertschinger via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
What does it take to succeed in academia? How is success measured?
For students entering graduate school, at least in many physics departments, the answer would seem to be "high GRE scores." Recently I attended the APS Bridge Program Summer Meeting 2013 where much attention was directed to another factor that is harder measure but, many believe, ultimately more reliable: perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Sometimes called "fire in the belly", this personality trait is known in the world of social psychologists as Grit. An inspiring introduction is given by Angela Lee Duckworth.
In my household growing up, the word for grit was Sisu -- a Finnish word that is central to my cultural background.
To read more, please see
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2013/07/grit-and-sisu.html
To watch Angela Lee Duckworth's presentation, visit
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ted-talks-education/speaker/dr-angela-lee-duckworth
Back to top.6. Soapbox Science by the Thames
From: Daryl Haggard [dhaggard_at_northwestern.edu]
Why aren't there more women in science - and how can we change that?
By Rose Troup Buchanan
...
Last Friday, Soapbox Science made its third appearance in London. For Dr. Seirian Sumner and Dr. Nathalie Pettorelli, who created and ran the very first event three years ago, it's about 'making the right women visible and accessible'.
Soapbox Science brings together 12 female scientists, across all sorts of disciplines and positions, in order to promote gender equality in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths). Seirian and Nathalie wanted to bring science to the public, one small group at a time, dispelling notions of disaffection and highlighting female achievement within STEM. Each of the 12 women spoke for an hour, standing on a box, to anyone willing to lend an ear along the Southbank of the Thames.
To read more, please see
Back to top.7. Stella, a play about women, their men and astronomy
From: Karen Masters <Karen.Masters_at_port.ac.uk>
Members of the list who are UK-based might be interested in the below touring play about women and astronomy (sorry it's now mid tour):
William Herschel discovered Uranus. So what did his sister do?
She discovered eight comets, numerous nebulae, some double stars and was the first woman to receive honorary membership of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Science has historically been a man’s domain and yet look closely at the archive and you’ll find a silent army of intelligent, dedicated women researching and discovering.
This is a play about Time, Space, Curiosity and Passion: two women astronomers, Jessica Bell from the C21st and Caroline Herschel from the C18th look up at the same night sky and find themselves colliding in their search for understanding. Caroline longs for a family and home of her own; Jess contemplates the prospect of losing both.
Each woman can precisely map her position in the universe yet she struggles to find her place in the world
To learn more, please see
Back to top.8. 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.9. 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:
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To join or leave AASWomen via web, or change your membership settings:
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Back to top.10. 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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