AAS Committee on the Status of
Women
Issue of March 7, 2014
eds: Michele M. Montgomery, Daryl
Haggard, Nick Murphy, & Nicolle Zellner
This week's issues:
1. Sometimes Being Good Isn’t Enough
2. Part II Nail Salons:
Appropriate Astronomy Women’s Group Venue? Survey Results
3. The 2013 CSWA Demographics
Survey: Portrait of a Generation of Women in Astronomy
4. Childcare Available at Boston
AAS Meeting
5. Career Profile: Astronomer to
Director for the Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics
6. L’Oréal-UNESCO
Women in Science Fellowships: UK and Ireland
7. How to Level the Playing Field
for Women in Science
8. In Academia, Women Collaborate
Less With Their Same-Sex Juniors
9.
Sexism plagues major chemistry conference: Boycott emerges amid growing outrage
10. A Mighty Girl: Mighty Careers
11.
Change sought in women's depiction in text books
12. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
13. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen
Newsletter
14. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter
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1. Sometimes Being Good Isn’t Enough
From: Stephen Rinehart via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
This is for all the men out
there. Ok, for the women too.
Are you a good person? In particular, are you a good person when it
comes to supporting equitable treatment for everyone? I like to believe that, at least since
reaching adulthood, I’ve been a good person (at least in this context). That’s not to say that I have been without
fault, but I have certainly tried to be a good person. Of course, the question is, “what does it
mean to be a good person?”
To find out what it means to be a
good person, please see
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2.
Part II Nail Salons: Appropriate
Astronomy Women’s Group Venue? Survey Results
From:
Stella Offner via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
On 11 Feb 2014, I wrote a post
reflecting on whether nail salons are an appropriate venue for a women's
astronomy group outing. This issue was contentious within our group and, apparently,
also within the astronomy community. The post received over 1200 views, and 131
people completed the survey. In this post, I will share the very interesting
poll responses. Thanks to everyone who weighed in!
To read about the results and
takeaway points, please see
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3. The 2013 CSWA Demographics
Survey: Portrait of a Generation of Women in Astronomy
From: Meredith Hughes via
womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
[ed.: Reproduced from the January
2014 Status: A report on Women in Astronomy, A. Meredith Hughes (Wesleyan
University) presents results from the 2013 CSWA Demographics Survey.]
The current survey marks a decade
since the last data collection effort and two decades since the initiation of
the STScI demographics survey. With a rich, 20-year-long data set – and nearly
100% participation from the institutions surveyed – we are now able to provide
an overview of how the representation of women in astronomy has evolved over
the last generation.
To read about these results and
to see how they compare to past surveys, please see
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4. Childcare Available at Boston AAS Meeting
From: Kelly Clark
[kelly.clark_at_aas.org]
The AAS Council is pleased to
again offer childcare grants in the amount of $250. The deadline to submit child care grant
requests for the AAS Meeting in Boston is 1 May 2014.
To apply for a grant, please
visit
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5. Career Profiles: Astronomer to
Director for the Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics
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 an
astronomer turned Professor of Physics & Astronomy and Director for the
Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics. If you have questions,
suggestions, advice to share, etc. about this career path, please leave a
comment below.
To read more, please see
For access to all our Career
Profile Project interviews, please visit
We plan to post a new career
profile to this blog every first and third Thursday of the month.
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6. L’Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science Fellowships:
UK and Ireland
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
Applications
for the 2014 L’Oréal-UNESCO UK & Ireland For Women in Science Fellowships
are now being accepted and will close on Friday, March 14.
For
more information about the fellowship and the application process, please see
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7. How to Level the Playing Field
for Women in Science
From: Jessica Kirkpatrick [berkeleyjess_at_gmail.com]
Mary Ann Mason, a professor at
UC-Berkeley, writes that, while more female students were taking more science
classes at Berkeley, “very few of the faculty members were female.” She attributes this to barriers faced by
women as they travel the career path to full professor in academia. Dr. Mason identifies four interventions that
can help retain female science professors: better (and more) child-care
options, effective dual-career policies, childbirth accommodations, and
compliance with Title IX.
For details on how to level the
playing field, please see
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8. In Academia, Women Collaborate
Less With Their Same-Sex Juniors
From: Nicolle Zellner
[nzellner_at_albion.edu]
Surveying psychologists’ research
publications from 2008-2011, Joyce Benensen and Richard Wrangham reported that female
full professors co-authored half as many papers with female junior faculty
members in their departments than would be expected. The study also found that female psychologists
are more likely to collaborate with female peers and junior male colleagues,
thus revealing “yet another barrier toward women advancing in academia.” Results
from this study were reported this week in Current
Biology.
To read a summary of the study,
please see
To read the report, please see
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9. Sexism Plagues Major Chemistry Conference:
Boycott Emerges Amid Growing Outrage
From:
Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
The
list of 24 speakers and chairs for the 2015 International Congress of Quantum
Chemistry originally included no women, despite more than 300 female scientists
being employed in appropriate positions in relevant fields. As a result, an
on-line petition was started, asking people to boycott the conference and to “condemn
gender-biased discriminatory practices”.
To
learn more about the boycott and how conference organizers have been responding,
please see
and
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/02/24/female-chemists-protest-all-male-conference-lineup
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10. A Mighty Girl: Mighty Careers
From: Nicolle Zellner
[nzellner_at_albion.edu]
‘A Mighty Girl’ assembles “the
world's largest collection of books, toys and movies for smart, confident, and
courageous girls”. Its new blog series, ‘Mighty Careers!’, describes careers
that young girls are likely to dream of pursuing. The first topic describes the
career of an astronaut, includes a profile of Karen Nyberg, and recommends
books about other female space travelers.
To see some recommendations for fictional
books and biographies about female astronauts and space scientists, see
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11.
Change sought in women's depiction in text books
From:
Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
The
India Times reports that there is a concerted effort by the state education department
to make changes in school textbooks to “remove images and mention of women in
stereotypical gender roles that make them appear stuck in a time warp -
sweeping, serving food to boys, fetching water and washing dishes or clothes.”
To
read more, please see
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12. 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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13. How to Subscribe or
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Join AAS Women List by email:
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14. Access to Past Issues
Each annual summary includes an
index of topics covered.
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