AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of March 11, 2016
eds: Daryl Haggard, Nicolle Zellner, Elysse Voyer, & Heather Flewelling
This week's issues:
1. Transitioning as a Junior Astronomer
2. Postdoctoral Fellow Highlight: Dr. Lia Corrales
3. March is Women’s History Month
4. The costs of inequality: For women, progress until they get near power
5. 22 women of science who changed the world
6. APS Addresses Sexual Harassment Scandals
7. How to Recruit and Retain Underrepresented Minorities
8. 'Critical shortage' of women in science jobs, report finds
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. Transitioning as a Junior Astronomer
From: Jessica Mink via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
By Anonymous:
There have been some transgender astronomers that have come out publicly in recent years. While their experiences are important to talk about, they generally are senior astronomers who have transitioned well into their careers. Their experiences with transitioning in academia are going to be very different than that of an astronomer who transitions during or before graduate school.
I'll be attending grad school soon, and I'm writing this about my own experience as someone transitioning in an astronomy department and my thoughts about going into grad school and my future in astronomy as a trans person. I'm sure that people who know me might recognize details of this story and realize that I'm the author. Many people in the department I'm in are aware of my transition as I had been there before I transitioned, but it's not something I really intend on telling people about once I head off to grad school. Regardless, I still think the perspective of someone transitioning before getting a PhD is something that people should know about.
Read more at
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2. Postdoctoral Fellow Highlight: Dr. Lia Corrales
From: Jessica Kirkpatrick via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
[This post was cross-posted, with permission from Astronomy in Color. –Eds.]
Dr. Lia Corrales is currently a postdoc at MIT Kavli Institute, and will be taking an Einstein Fellowship to University of Wisconsin-Madison in Fall 2016. She received her Ph.D from Columbia University, where she was a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellow, studying astrophysical dust with high energy light…This interview is part of a series of posts on the Astronomy In Color blog dedicated to recognizing achievements by outstanding astronomers of color.
Read more about Dr. Corrales at
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3. March is Women’s History Month
From: Sethanne Howard [sethanneh_at_msn.com]
Women's history month is here so it is time to remember the book “The Hidden Giants”, which discusses the history of women in science - for over 4,000 years we were there and active. It notes that the first scientist in history was a woman: En Hedu'anna.
You can find a preview of the book at
For a reading list of books written about women in science, see
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4. The costs of inequality: For women, progress until they get near power
From: Nancy Evans [nevans_at_cfa.harvard.edu]
“The gap between men’s and women’s pay has shrunk in recent decades…. [but] [w]omen still make up only 4 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs, and 19 percent of Congress. They are rarely leaders in high-paying, cutting-edge financial services and technology companies… People generally know that women’s salaries are about 77 percent of men’s. What people usually don’t see, though, is the loss in terms of human potential when women don’t make it to the top of their fields…Nor…are people aware of the extent that their ingrained biases have supported inaccurate perceptions about women and the unfair practices that those biases can produce.”
Read more at
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5. 22 women of science who changed the world
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
Will Creighton writes about 22 women, including three astronomers and one astronaut, who “broke through social and cultural barriers to make historic firsts and global impacts.”
Read more at
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6. APS Addresses Sexual Harassment Scandals
From: Lauren Aycock [lma67_at_cornell.edu]
The American Physical Society (APS) has issued a response that addresses the latest incidents of sexual harassment in the scientific communities. An APS code of conduct for meetings (approved in November 2015) lays out consequences for transgressions, including verbal warning, ejection from the meeting without refund, and/or notifying appropriate authorities. Says APS CEO Kate Kirby, “I think it’s just incredibly important that we make sure that people are able to practice physics without being bullied, harassed, or made to feel uncomfortable. We have to establish — especially at our meetings — an environment where people feel safe and can benefit from participating fully.”
Read more at
The full code of conduct is available at the Code of Contact for APS Meetings page, at
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7. How to Recruit and Retain Underrepresented Minorities
From: Nancy Morrison [nancyastro126_at_gmail.com]
Ashanti Johnson and Melanie Harrison Okoro have co-authored a paper in American Scientist (March-April 2016) about recruiting and retaining underrepresented minorities in science. Dr. Johnson created a successful mentoring program in oceanography, and the other is an alumna of that program. In it, Dr. Okoro learned: '(1) There’s going to be some isolation in research, and it comes with the territory; (2) there’s a lack of diversity within science, but programs like MS PHD’S are working to change that; (3) a career in academia isn’t just about research; and (4) there are other viable career paths for scientists besides entering academia.'
Read more at
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8. 'Critical shortage' of women in science jobs, report finds
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
A report by Karen Holford, pro-vice chancellor of Cardiff University, found that across the United Kingdom, extra female scientists could be worth £2billion to the economy. Additionally, “a shortfall of 600 Stem academic roles could be filled by having more women in relevant careers.”
Read more at
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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
- Deputy Head of the Joint ALMA Observatory Program Management Group, NRAO
- Assistant Director for Education and Public Outreach, NRAO
- Assistant Scientist, NRAO
- Assistant Scientist/A, NRAO
- Research Engineer in Millimeter and Submillimeter Wavelength Electronics, NRAO
- Radar Tracking Engineer (Open Rank), NRAO
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10. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
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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
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12. Access to Past Issues
Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.
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