NSF Support of Women in Academia Since 1982

Nancy Morrison, The University of Toledo, Department of Physics and Astronomy (retired). Reproduced from the January 2014 Issue of STATUS: A Report on Women in Astronomy

The Boston meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in February, 2013, included a session on twentieth-century women in science. [1] This report, the second of two on this session, is based in part on the presentation by Sue V. Rosser, which was entitled, “Policy-Making for Women in Science: From NSF Visiting Professorship for Women to ADVANCE.”

Rosser is Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at San Francisco State University. Previously, she was professor, then dean at Georgia Tech. According to the introduction to her talk, she has been influential in starting women's studies programs; indeed, she has headed two at other universities. Important for her presentation was her experience as Senior Program Officer for Women's Programs at the National Science Foundation (NSF). [2]

AASWomen Newsletter for June 27, 2014

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of June 27, 2014
eds: Daryl Haggard, Nicolle Zellner, Meredith Hughes, & Elysse Voyer

This week's issues:

1. Increasing diversity by ditching the GRE

2. Why So Few? Contrast-Sensitivity Ability

3. Career Profiles: Astronomer to Software Engineer at SpaceX

4. Interesting Verizon commercial about encouraging girls in science

5. Women and Wikipedia: science and engineering’s forgotten labour

6. L'Oreal Fellowship Winners in Physics

7. Seeking Women Astronomer Role Models

8. Master's Degree Opportunity at the University of Manitoba

9. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter

10. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter

11. Access to Past Issues

Career Profiles: Astronomer to Software Engineer at SpaceX

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 Patrik Jonsson, an astronomer turned software engineer at SpaceX. He made his career switch at the age of 41 and works remotely from Hawaii. If you have questions, suggestions, advice to share, etc. about this career path, please leave a comment below.

For access to all our Career Profile Project interviews, please visit http://aas.org/jobs/career-profiles. We plan to post a new career profile to this blog every Thursday.

Why So Few? Contrast-Sensitivity Ability

The 2010 report entitled, Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), profiles research by Dr. Shelley Correll on gender differences in self-assessment, or how good you think you are at a particular activity or subject. Dr. Correll is a sociologist at Stanford University and finds that “boys do not pursue mathematical activities at a higher rate than girls do because they are better at math. They do so, at least partially, because they think they are better.”

Dr. Correll first became interested in gender differences in self-assessment when she taught chemistry to high school students. She realized that no matter how well the girls in her classes did, she had trouble convincing them that they had any scientific ability. At the same time, she found that no matter how poorly the boys in her classes did, they continued to believe that they were very good at chemistry.

Increasing diversity by ditching the GRE

Every Fall seniors in the US take the Graduate Records Examination (GRE), and their scores are submitted along with their applications to grad school. Many professors, particularly those in physics departments, believe that the GRE is an important predictor of future success in grad school, and as a result many admissions committees employ score cutoffs in the early stages of their selection process. However, past and recent studies have shown that there is little correlation between GRE scores and future graduate school success.

The most recent study of this type was recently published in Nature Jobs. The authors, Casey Miller and Keivan Stassun show there are strong correlations between GRE scores and race/gender, with minorities and (US) white women scoring lower than their white male (US) counterparts. They conclude, "In simple terms, the GRE is a better indicator of sex and skin colour than of ability and ultimate success."

Here's the key figure from their article:

AASWomen Newsletter for June 20, 2014

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of June 20, 2014
eds: Daryl Haggard, Nicolle Zellner, Meredith Hughes, Michele Montgomery, & Caroline Simpson

This week's issues:

1. CSWA Membership

2. Helen Mason Honored

3. Encounter with a Serial Harasser

4. Gender Equity Summit in Science Writing

5. Career Profiles in Astronomy: Astronomer to Science Communicator

6. “Unheard Voices: Women in Astronomy” Resource Guide

7. On Hiring: Mothers in Academe

8. George E. Pake Prize

9. Join APS CUWiP on LinkedIn

10. Information Request

11. APS Speakers List Featuring Women and Minorities

12. IPAC Visiting Graduate Student Fellowship 2015

13. Job Opportunities

14. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter

15. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter

16. Access to Past Issues

Career Profiles: Astronomer to Science Communicator

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 Rick Fienberg, an astronomer turned AAS Press Officer and Director of Communications. After his first postdoc, he worked at Sky & Telescope for over 20 years before taking on his role at the AAS in 2009. If you have questions, suggestions, advice to share, etc. about this career path, please leave a comment below.

For access to all our Career Profile Project interviews, please visit http://aas.org/jobs/career-profiles. We plan to post a new career profile to this blog every Thursday.

Encounter with a Serial Harasser

Today's guest blogger is Anonymous 2; Anonymous 2 describes her creepy encounter with one of Astronomy's most notorious sexual harassers. Her identity is protected.

In
 a 
room
 that 
was 
a 
little 
too 
dark 
(but 
there 
were
 little 
lamps 
with 
incandescent
 bulbs 
on
 to
 shed 
some 
light)
 

With 
the 
door 
a 
little 
too
 closed 
(but
 not 
completely 
closed, 
it 
was 
probably 
set 
at
 something 
like 
~45
degrees)

 

The
 conversation 
wandered 
a 
little 
too 
far 
(he 
must 
have 
asked 
how 
things 
were
 going 
in 
general, 
or
something 
equally 
innocuous)

 

He 
asked 
about 
boy 
troubles 
(not 
something 
I 
would 
bring 
up 
– 
just 
ask
 my 
mother)
 

And
 recommended
 I 
consider 
men 
that 
have 
“spent
 a 
little 
more 
time
 in 
the 
oven,”
 if
 you
 will





I
 don’t 
remember 
how 
I 
got 
out 
of 
there 
(maybe
 we 
were 
interrupted, 
thankfully?)





I 
left 
thinking 
what 
the 
hell 
was 
that

 

I 
left 
thinking 
how 
much 
he
 reminded
 me 
of 
a 
creepy 
colleague
 at 
my
 last 
job 
before
 college
 

I 
left 
thinking 
of 
a 
coworker
 at 
that 
job 
who 
had 
pulled 
my 18‐year‐old 
self 
aside 
and told 
me 
to
practice 
shaking
 my
 finger 
and 
saying 
“girlfriend, 
I 
don’t 
think 
so”






But
 he
 couldn’t 
have 
been 
hitting 
on 
me 
because
 I’m
 not


Pretty 
enough


Thin
 enough


Weak 
enough


Dumb
 enough



For 
that, 
right?






Right?


Gender Equity Summit in Science Writing

This Weekend I attended part of the Science Writing Summit 2014 #SciWriSum14 #sciwrisummit, an inspiring gathering of science writers to advance the status of women in this profession.  The program was action-oriented, with break-out sessions reporting to the plenary and producing a great list of action items for the group to continue working on during the coming months.  The most prominent deliverable was the draft of a Bill of Rights for Science Writers that would call on employers to ensure equal opportunity for all journalists regardless of gender, race, national origin, sexual identity, age and religion, and to commit to high standards of ethics and professional conduct.  All of us can learn from these ideas and conversations.

By way of background, there are about two thousand science writers in the US; the field is about 1/3 the size of astronomy.  Unlike astronomy, where most professional jobs require a PhD in astronomy or a related field, writers come with a wide variety of backgrounds, including degrees in science, journalism, or other fields.  Many science writers are freelancers, i.e. contract writers, rather than fulltime employees.  Freelancers have the least institutional support and are therefore more subject to discrimination and harassment than others.

Several people I spoke with said they thought the situation of women was better in universities than in the private sector, which led to interesting conversations on the role of government accountability for federal contractors.  For example, universities report their student and employee diversity using either IPEDS or the EEO-1 mechanism; some readers will know it took a great deal of effort and Freedom of Information Act requests before Google released their EEO-1 form showing that the vast majority of their professional employees are white or Asian males.  Universities are required to be transparent, which makes it harder to sustain institutional inequity.  Another example is the national attention focused on sexual assault and harassment thanks to Title IX, which does not apply to companies that do not take federal funds.

Science writers are expert in understanding the impact of words.  I met writer Christie Aschwanden and learned about her Finkbeiner Test for gender bias in science writing.  Named after journalist Ann Finkbeiner -- who wrote an article about astronomer Andrea Ghez that made no mention of her gender, husband, child care arrangements, being a role model, etc -- the Finkbeiner Test is a great way to engage astronomers in discussions about gender bias.

I would encourage anyone interested in gender equity to follow the work of the Women in Science Writing, as well as groups in other fields whose ideas will help us all.  Thank you to the organizers of Science Writing Summit 2014!

AASWOMEN Newsletter for June 13, 2014

AAS Committee on the Status of Women

Issue of June 13, 2014

eds: Daryl Haggard, Nicolle Zellner, Meredith Hughes, & Caroline Simpson

This week's issues:

1. A Great Reason for Prospective Graduate Students to Pick Princeton 

2. Sexual Harassment: One campus's response

3. Sexual Harassment: Understanding the Impact of Advisors who Prey on Students

4. Career Profiles: Astronomer to Data Scientist

5. Parking and the Professor

6. A Test That Fails

7. Outstanding Doctoral Thesis in Astrophysics Award

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

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Career Profiles: Astronomer to Data Scientist

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 Jessica Kirkpatrick, an astronomer turned data scientist. She went directly from graduate school to working as a data scientist for Microsoft/Yammer and recently became the Director of Data Science at the education start-up InstaEDU. If you have questions, suggestions, advice to share, etc. about this career path, please leave a comment below.

For access to all our Career Profile Project interviews, please visit http://aas.org/jobs/career-profiles. We plan to post a new career profile to this blog every Thursday.

A Great Reason for Prospective Graduate Students to Pick Princeton

As a Harvard professor, I never thought I would write a post with THAT title!

But after my national survey of all PhD-granting departments (and joint departments) of astronomy or astrophysics (there are 28 of them), Princeton has emerged hands-down as the winner for financially supporting graduate students with young children.

I have written previously about the current state of paid leave for graduate students. Nineteen of the 28 departments (68%) in the survey now offer at least 6 weeks paid leave for graduate students who become parents. Most excitingly, the landscape is changing rapidly, with pending policy changes at several of the institutions that currently offer no paid leave. I would like to see all departments in our community recognize that new parents need at least 3 months (not 6 weeks) of paid leave, and be inclusive of all parents (some benefits are currently restricted to birth mothers). But at least we can assert that paid leave among the 28 US departments of astronomy is now the norm.

But this post isn't about paid leave: Rather, it is about the much larger financial challenge of childcare.

Sexual Harassment: One campus's response

MIT is not on the list of colleges and universities with current or recent sexual violence investigations conducted by the US Departments of Education and Justice.  Yet we have sexual violence on our campus and are committed to eliminating it.  Here is our story, from my perspective as a faculty leader.

More than a year ago, student sexual assault survivors came to speak with me seeking advice about how to reach faculty with their stories, as they felt it was important for faculty members to be aware of the problem of sexual violence so that they could be part of the solution.  I was the physics department head with no direct responsibility for student life but I helped the students to increase awareness among faculty.  They felt empowered to tell their stories.  Last fall, students began speaking about their experiences to housemasters (faculty members resident in dormitories) and others.  Telling one's story can be very difficult but helps others to see.

Sexual Harassment: Understanding the Impact of Advisors who Prey on Students

Photo credit: http://www.smhcs.org/blog/?p=1950

Today's guest blogger is Anonymous. Anonymous contacted CSWA in the wake of the Fed Up with Sexual Harassment posts: 

Defining the Problem

Survival of the Clueless

The Serial Harasser's Playbook

Power to Speak Up

Guest Post By Dara Norman

We are trying to help her through the terrible ordeal she describes here. Since the situation is ongoing, her identity is protected.

Let me start with four words that no manager should ever say to a sexual harassment victim who comes to him or her for help: “Just get over it.”  These are the words that my most senior manager said to me after every step in the process for dealing with sexual harassment failed. 

I work at a non-academic research institute where I conducted my PhD research with my advisor, a senior scientist in our organization, and have remained to work on other projects independent of him.  At the time that I was working for my advisor, he had absolute control over my academic and professional life.  During this time he tried to get me to sleep with him, after which I spent almost four years in a state of terror because of his change in behavior towards me when I indicated that I was not interested in such an inappropriate relationship.  When I went to managers and human resources for help, every effort was made to silence me and to protect my advisor.  This is an ongoing situation and my only choice may eventually be to leave the field. Now, I’m not explaining all of this to draw attention to my situation, but rather to provide context for what I would really like to discuss: the psychological impact of sexual harassment in the student-advisor relationship. 

AASWOMEN Newsletter for June 6, 2014

AAS Committee on the Status of Women

Issue of June 6, 2014

eds: Nick Murphy, Daryl Haggard, Nicolle Zellner, & Meredith Hughes

This week's issues:

1. UK's 'Your Life' Campaign: Concrete Steps to Recruiting Women in STEM

2. #YesAllWomen

3. Career Profiles: Astronomer to Tenure Track Faculty at a Community College

4. Physicist, 36, Father of One

5. The Perfect Response to a Very Personal Interview Question

6. UC San Diego's "Physics Girl" Wins National Competition

7. Lego Astronomer

8. Job Opportunities

9. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter

10. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter

11. Access to Past Issues

Career Profiles: Astronomer to Tenure Track Faculty at a California Community College

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 tenure track faculty at a California Community College. If you have questions, suggestions, advice to share, etc. about this career path, please leave a comment below.

For access to all our Career Profile Project interviews, please visit http://aas.org/jobs/career-profiles. We plan to post a new career profile to this blog every first and third Thursday of the month.

#YesAllWomen

Cave in Iceland, Astrobiology Summer School (2012) 

Today's guest post is from Christina Richey. Christina is a Senior Scientist at Smart Data Solutions, LLC, and is located at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, where she works within the Planetary Science Division R&A group.  She is currently the contract Program Officer for the Cassini Data Analysis Program, the Discovery Data Analysis Program, the Exoplanets Research Program, and a Discipline Scientist for the Emerging Worlds Program.  She was recently the guest speaker for the Susan Niebur Event at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

In the past few weeks, months, and even years, the Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy, the Women in Planetary Science, and many other groups within our community have worked tirelessly to bring to light a plight that women in our community, in our society as a whole, have faced.  I have been one of those women.  I grew up in the laboratory astrophysics community, and even though I have been fortunate enough to have had the best advisors possible, who always considered me as a student/early career colleague with potential and really pushed me to become a leader, and even though I have worked in some of the greatest groups around, I too, have been harassed.  Not once, but multiple times.  Sometimes the story is more horrifying than others.  Sometimes it was easily shut down, sometimes I’m not even sure it could have been defined as harassment, but I knew it wasn’t okay.  It was frustrating, and many times, a damn near desperate time where I thought of leaving this field behind.  But I constantly reminded myself how much I loved the work I do, and that I wanted to be in this field to make change for the better for our entire community.  Not just myself, or women for that matter, but everyone.  

UK's 'Your Life' Campaign: Government, Industry, and Universities' Concrete Steps to Recruiting Women in STEM

In early May the UK launched its ‘Your Life’ campaign, a new STEM initiative focused on spreading the message that science and math are the pathway to a successful and well-paid career*. The initiatives concrete goals are to:

• Increase the total number of students studying A-level Maths and Physics by 50% over the next three years.
• Double the proportion of undergraduate engineering and technology degrees that are taken by women to 30% by 2030 and increase the numbers taking these degrees overall.
• Increase the number of women in STEM careers (no clear numbers/benchmarks are assigned to this goal)

Over 170 businesses, universities, schools, and other organizations have signed personalized pledges stating specific steps each company/organization will take to support these goals. The numerous pathways/programs fall under three main categories:

• STEM companies are providing financial support for a new scheme called ‘Maths and Physics Chairs’ to recruit post-doctoral graduates to become science and math teachers, particularly for 14-16 year old students. This will inject teachers with top-level expertise at this critical age when girls are choosing non-STEM trajectories. 
• New partnerships between universities and STEM companies to provide additional internship opportunities and improve targeted recruitment of women into STEM companies. 
• Universities and STEM companies have pledged to identify women in STEM role models from within their organizations and provide support for these role models to participate in career panel discussions, classroom visits, online webinars, etc. The primary audience for these role model interactives will be 14-16 year olds as well as undergraduate students.