Women In Astronomy: AASWomen Newsletter for May 05, 2017

AAS Committee on the Status of Women AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of May 05, 2017
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, and Maria Patterson

This week's issues:

1. Cross-Post: Astronomy in Color: Student Highlight: Sydney Duncan
From: Christina Richey via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

This is a cross post from the Astronomy in Color blog. The Astronomy in Color blog has an entire series of posts highlighting the amazing next generation of scientists in our field. This cross-post features Sydney Duncan. This interview was done by CSMA member Nicole Cabrera Salazar.

Sydney Duncan is a native of Dallas, where she trained in classical ballet at Tuzer Ballet and Texas Ballet Theatre School. At Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, she studied saxophone, voice, and dance. Duncan then attended University of Utah, where she double majored in ballet and physics and performed with Utah Ballet. She has attended summer intensives at American Ballet Theatre, Ballet West, Atlanta Ballet, LINES Ballet, Ailey, Oklahoma City Ballet, Dallas Ballet Dance Theatre, and Hubbard Street. She completed Astrophysics REUs at University of Oklahoma and University of Chicago. At the University of Utah she conducted research on the chemical abundances of globular clusters with Dr. Inese Ivans. She is now dancing professionally in New York City.

2. New AAS policy on meetings
From: Nancy Morrison [nancyastro126_at_gmail.com]

During its most recent video conference, on 2017 April 21, the AAS Council adopted the following policy, which is meant to cover all meetings that are sponsored by the AAS and its Divisions.

In the absence of a nationwide anti-discrimination law covering sexual orientation and gender expression, it is the policy of the AAS to locate its meetings in cities where all LGBTQIA attendees are welcomed and accommodated. If laws change after contracts are signed, the AAS will do everything that it can to enable those discriminated against to participate fully in the meeting.

The policy can be found on this page, which is under development: https://aas.org/governance/council-policies

3. Commentary: Diversity in physics: Are you part of the problem?
From: Heather Flewelling [heather_at_ifa.hawaii.edu]

by Ann Nelson

"Many leading academic physics departments have no underrepresented-minority faculty members. My own department at the University of Washington has never had an African American tenure-track faculty member. That state of affairs is taken for granted, but it should be regarded as shameful. At Stanford University in the late 1980s, I was the first tenure-track woman hired in physics; the applied physics department and SLAC still had none. Yet my appointment (granted to increase diversity in the physics department) immediately made the percentage of female physics faculty at Stanford well above the national average. At that time, having no women in a physics department was viewed as normal."

4. Women make up just 15% of NASA’s planetary mission science teams. Here’s how the agency is trying to change that
From: Heather Flewelling [heather_at_ifa.hawaii.edu]

By Paul Voosen

"Sometimes, change starts with a single sentence.

In December 2016, NASA began accepting bids for its next New Frontiers competition, a chance to mount a $1 billion mission to solar system destinations such as the moon, Venus, or Saturn's moon Titan. It is a careermaking opportunity, and scientists devoured the rules in the announcement. In the second paragraph, they read something new: a sentence stating that "NASA recognizes and supports the benefits of having diverse and inclusive" communities and "fully expects that such values will be reflected in the composition of all proposal teams."

Many scientists hope the language will help NASA get out of a rut. Over the past 15 years, women have made up just 15% of planetary mission science teams, even though at least a quarter of planetary scientists are women. The disparity is even worse for ethnic minorities: Blacks and Hispanics make up 13% and 16% of the country, respectively, but each group makes up just 1% of the nation's planetary scientists. (Firm numbers for specific missions are not available.)"

5. As a woman in science, I need to conceal my femininity to be taken seriously
From: Heather Flewelling [heather_at_ifa.hawaii.edu]

By Eve Forster

"It’s a thesis I tested myself. It proved true.

When I’m at the lab, I dress as invisibly as I can. I wear dark jeans, boring, long-sleeved shirts and hoodies, and casual shoes. My hair is tied back into a sloppy bun, and my makeup is minimal. I look like I live in an organic granola commercial."

6. Mic: Think there aren't qualified women to speak on your panel? Here are 1,000 names.
From: Heather Flewelling [heather_at_ifa.hawaii.edu]

By Melanie Ehrenkranz

"Next time you find yourself watching a panel of experts discussing the latest in technology, finance, engineering, math or science, ask yourself: Am I looking at a sea of men?"

7. One more barrier faced by women in science: the bathroom
From: Heather Flewelling [heather_at_ifa.hawaii.edu]

by Lily Cohen

"Last week I peed all over myself in the name of studying climate change in Alaska. Gender barriers in science don’t always take an obvious form, and they get especially perilous in below-zero temperatures. Some of these involve individual’s malice or misogyny, but there is another set of barriers that simply result from being a woman in a male dominated field. If we continue ignoring those additional challenges by striving for equality instead of equity, the barriers will persist."

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