Friday, April 7, 2017

AASWomen Newsletter for April 07, 2017

AAS Committee on the Status of Women AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of April 07, 2017
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, and Maria Patterson

This week's issues:

1. Women In Astronomy IV - Join us!

2. An Early-Career Astronomer's Experience at AAS CVD 2017

3. Starting from girls, making women's lives count

4. Women's interest development and motivations to persist as college students in STEM

5. Girls' confidence level, not math ability hinders path to science degrees

6. Eos: Geosciences Make Modest Gains but Still Struggle with Diversity

7. Job Opportunities

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. Women In Astronomy IV - Join us!
From: Sarah Tuttle via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

I'm excited to share with you a project we've been working on for months. The next "Women in Astronomy" conference is coming up quick, June 9 11th in Austin, Texas (right after the Summer AAS meeting).

Why should you join us (especially after a grueling but delightful summer AAS?)

Read more at

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2017/04/women-in-astronomy-iv-join-us.html

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2. An Early-Career Astronomer's Experience at AAS CVD 2017
From: Maria Patterson [mtpatter_at_uw.edu]

"This guest post is from Julie D. Davis, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. - Heather Bloemhard, Bahcall Public Policy Fellow

This March, I had the opportunity to participate in the annual American Astronomical Society Congressional Visits Day (CVD). Along with 14 fellow scientists from across the country, I spent three days in Washington, DC, getting an intensive crash-course in science policy and tackling Capitol Hill. The experience was a whirlwind but absolutely fascinating and very worthwhile. I was able to expand my horizons beyond academia, branch out of my comfort zone, and do something tangible for science in an uncertain political climate."

Read more at

https://aas.org/posts/blog/2017/04/early-career-astronomer%E2%80%99s-experience-aas-cvd-2017

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3. Starting from girls, making women's lives count
From: Maria Patterson [mtpatter_at_uw.edu]

"In a statement ahead of the Women's G7 Forum [beginning today, April 7], UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka emphasized that building gender equality is 'a shared responsibility, needing action in all sectors and by everyone: public and private sectors, men and women alike.'"

Read more at

http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2017/4/statement-ed-phumzile-mlambo-ngcuka-ahead-of-womens-g7-forum

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4. Women's interest development and motivations to persist as college students in STEM
From: Maria Patterson [mtpatter_at_uw.edu]

"If women continue to be underrepresented in STEM, gaining deeper understanding of what makes some of them motivated in science is an important step in addressing this. A mixed methods study published in International Journal of STEM Education investigates what experiences women credited for influencing their career interest goals and their motivation to succeed: read their own words, the enthusiasm is infectious."

Read more at

http://blogs.springeropen.com/springeropen/2017/04/04/womens-interest-development-motivations-persist-college-students-stem

Find the original study at

https://stemeducationjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40594-017-0059-2

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5. Girls' confidence level, not math ability hinders path to science degrees
From: Maria Patterson [mtpatter_at_uw.edu]

"When it comes to mathematics, girls rate their abilities markedly lower than boys, even when there is no observable difference between the two, according to Florida State University researchers.

"The argument continues to be made that gender differences in the 'hard' sciences is all about ability," said Lara Perez-Felkner, assistant professor of higher education and sociology in the College of Education. "But when we hold mathematics ability test scores constant, effectively taking it out of the equation, we see boys still rate their ability higher, and girls rate their ability lower."

Read more at

https://phys.org/news/2017-04-girls-confidence-math-ability-hinders.html

Find the original study at

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00386

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6. Eos: Geosciences Make Modest Gains but Still Struggle with Diversity
From: Maria Patterson [mtpatter_at_uw.edu]

"Recent research on diversity indicates that a general underrepresentation of minorities in science and engineering becomes even more pronounced in the geosciences. The findings show also that despite efforts to attract more minorities into the geosciences, their representation has improved only incrementally for more than a decade.

Women, on the other hand, have increased their presence in the geosciences since 2004. Back then, women earned one out of every three doctoral degrees awarded in the geosciences; by 2014, the share of Ph.D.'s earned by women rose to 43%. Yet despite gains in educational attainment, women remain deeply underemployed in the geosciences..."

Read more at

https://eos.org/articles/geosciences-make-modest-gains-but-still-struggle-with-diversity

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7. Job Opportunities

For those interested in increasing excellence and diversity in their organizations, a list of resources and advice is here: https://cswa.aas.org/diversity.html#howtoincrease

-Observatory Support Scientist, Boston University (stationed in Flagstaff, AZ) http://www.bu.edu/iar/files/2017/03/BU_Lowell_ObsSupportSci_ad_new.pdf

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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.

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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:

Send email to aaswlist+unsubscribe_at_aas.org from the address you want to have UNsubscribed. You can leave the subject and message blank if you like.

To join or leave AASWomen via web, or change your membership settings:

https://groups.google.com/a/aas.org/group/aaswlist

You will have to create a Google Account if you do not already have one, using https://accounts.google.com/newaccount?hl=en

Google Groups Subscribe Help:

http://support.google.com/groups/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=46606

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10. Access to Past Issues

https://cswa.aas.org/AASWOMEN.html

Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.

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