Women In Astronomy: AASWomen Newsletter for February 03, 2017

AAS Committee on the Status of Women AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of Feb 03, 2017
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, and Maria Patterson

This week's issues:

1. Responses to the Executive Order on Immigration and Visas
From: Christina Richey via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

Attached below are recent statements, petitions, etc. from the scientific community in response to the executive order (EO) signed by President Trump on January 27th, suspending all immigration rights to the United States for citizens from seven countries (Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia) for 90 days. Images throughout this blog are not attached to original pieces, but were taken by professional astronomers and planetary scientists acting in their personal interests.

2. The Writing of "Silent Spring": Rachel Carson and the Culture-Shifting Courage to Speak Inconvenient Truth to Power
From: Matthew Greenhouse [matthew.a.greenhouse_at_nasa.gov]

By Maria Popova

“Life and Reality are not things you can have for yourself unless you accord them to all others,” philosopher Alan Watts wrote in the 1950s as he contemplated the interconnected nature of the universe. What we may now see as an elemental truth of existence was then a notion both foreign and frightening to the Western mind. But it was a scientist, not a philosopher, who levered this monumental shift in consciousness: Rachel Carson (May 27, 1907–April 14, 1964), a Copernicus of biology who ejected the human animal from its hubristic place at the center of Earth’s ecological cosmos and recast it as one of myriad organisms, all worthy of wonder, all imbued with life and reality. Her lyrical writing rendered her not a mere translator of the natural world, but an alchemist transmuting the steel of science into the gold of wonder. The message of her iconic Silent Spring (public library) rippled across public policy and the population imagination — it led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, inspired generations of activists, and led Joni Mitchell to write a lyric as timeless as “I don’t care about spots on my apples / Leave me the birds and the bees / Please!”

3. Data Illuminate a Mountain of Molehills Facing Women Scientists
From: Nancy Morrison [nancyastro126_at_gmail.com] and Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]

'... The American Geophysical Union (AGU) ... publishes a suite of scientific journals and possesses gender and age information for more than 38,000 geoscientists who belong to the organization or have participated in AGU-sponsored activities, like its sprawling Fall Meeting.

'Merging these two data sets offered the chance to evaluate both the gender ratio of authors and reviewers for AGU’s journals and how those ratios stacked up against the field’s demographic breakdown. [Jory Lerback, a graduate student at the University of Utah] undertook the task with Brooks Hanson, AGU’s director of publications, and uncovered a complex landscape of small but significant gender differences in geoscience publishing.'

To read more, see this article in EOS, which also includes a lot of background on implicit bias and other issues.

https://eos.org/features/data-illuminate-mountain-molehills-facing-women-scientists

Also see

http://www.nature.com/news/journals-invite-too-few-women-to-referee-1.21337

4. Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering
From: Rick Fienberg [rick.fienberg_at_aas.org]

Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering provides statistical information about the participation of these three groups in science and engineering education and employment. A formal report, in the form of a digest, is issued every 2 years.

5. An Open Letter To President Trump From 500 Women Scientists
From: Heather Flewelling [heather_at_ifa.hawaii.edu]

"Dear President Trump,

You said you wanted to heal the country, bridge our ideological divides, and be a president for everyone. Now that you have been sworn in, we want to encourage you to do just that."

6. Where are the women? Australia Day honours list dominated by men (again)
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]

by Tom McIlroy

Among categories with more than 10 nominations, women were worst-represented in science, technological developments and research and development (one woman and 20 men), law (three women and 18 men) and media (three women and 18 men).

7. Chandra X-ray Center: Women in Science
From: Megan Watzke [mwatzke_at_cfa.harvard.edu]

The Chandra X-ray Center recently launched a new website called “Women in Science" to promote women and their significant (though often overlooked) contributions in STEM fields. The new site features profiles, activities and other resources.

Read more at

http://chandra.si.edu/women

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