Women In Astronomy: AASWomen Newsletter for June 9, 2017

AAS Committee on the Status of Women AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of June 9, 2017
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, and Maria Patterson

This week's issues:

1. eAlliances : An Invitation to Join a Mutual Mentoring Network
From: Christina Richey via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

This post was submitted as a guest post in preparation for the Women in Astronomy IV Meeting.

Have you ever felt isolated at a department meeting and thought “Maybe it’s just me, but…”? Perhaps you are the only woman faculty member in your department, or the only faculty woman of color at your institution or maybe the only astronomer within a neutron star radius (10 km). Perhaps you have heard that networking and mentoring can help combat the isolation you feel, but how can you grow your own mentoring network? An NSF ADVANCE grant entitled “Mutual Mentoring to Combat Isolation in Physics” might help you do just that.

2. Becoming Inclusive
From: Jessica Mink via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

It's getting harder to decide whether to commit to conferences, what with the Texas Senate having passed SB6, the discriminatory bill about which I wrote in January. The possibility that the Speaker of the Texas House might be unable to stop its momentum delayed my registration for Women in Astronomy IV in Austin for a while, but I'll be there on a panel discussing our Inclusive Astronomy Recommendations. As a member of a class which seems to be under siege in much of the United(?) States, I have found that the best way to gain allies is to be an ally to as many groups as I can. Making astronomy more diverse and inclusive has become a major goal of my professional life.

In the other long-term activist part of my life, I have learned that if you want to make progress, there are three levels of work: 1) as an individual, 2) as part of a group with agreed-upon goals, and 3) inside the system. I don't mind meetings, so I tend to try to do all three. In addition to simply being my intersectional self, I've been working both within the American Astronomical Society as a member of both the Committee on the Status of Women (CSWA) and the Committee for Sexual orientation and Gender identity Minorities in Astronomy (SGMA), and outside, on the organizing committee for Inclusive Astronomy (IA).

3. You Can’t Be What You Can’t See: A Congressional Forum
From: John Mather [johncm12_at_gmail.com]

"Changing the Face of STEM is a groundbreaking multimedia project and educational initiative created to stimulate growth in gender, diversity, and inclusion within the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. The initiative includes the first feature-length documentary, Black Women in Medicine, which tells the history and stories of unsung Black female doctors. Since the launch of Changing the Face of STEM, the project has reached doctors, students, educators, corporate executives, and thought leaders throughout the U.S. through a series of screenings, and informative discussions, panels and trainings about diversity and inclusion. In conjunction with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Crystal R. Emery, CEO of URU The Right To Be will present a forum on diversity and inclusion in the STEM professions – “You Can’t Be What You Can’t See” The event will include conversations with leaders in the STEM fields, a screening of Emery’s award-winning documentary, Black Women in Medicine, and the book signing of Against All Odds: Celebrating Black Women in Medicine, the biographical photo-essay book penned by Emery, all elements of the Changing the Face of STEM initiative."

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/you-cant-be-what-you-cant-see-a-congressional-forum-tickets-33252037740

4. Workshop and Third Committee Meeting of The Committee on Impacts of Sexual Harassment in Academia
From: Heather Flewelling [heather_at_ifa.hawaii.edu]

"The National Academies is undertaking a study on the influence of sexual harassment in academia on the career advancement of women in the scientific, technical, and medical workforce. The study will examine the extent to which women in the fields of science, engineering, and medicine are victimized by sexual harassment in academic settings, existing information on the extent to which sexual harassment in academia negatively impacts the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women pursuing careers in these fields, and will identify and analyze the policies, strategies, and practices that have been the most successful in preventing and addressing sexual harassment in these settings.

To advance this critical conversation, the Committee on the Impacts of Sexual Harassment in Academia is convening a 1-day workshop in Irvine, CA on June 20th 2017. Distinguished scholars, educators, professional society leaders, and policy experts will gather to discuss the prevalence, nature, and impacts of sexual harassment, and the policies, strategies, and practices for addressing sexual harassment in academia."

5. Nature Astronomy Focus: Gender equity in astronomy
From: Heather Flewelling [heather_at_ifa.hawaii.edu]

"Equity and inclusion of all in the scientific process would ensure a true diversity of ideas, which is paramount for exploiting the full potential of our community to make new discoveries. Despite this relatively universally accepted Ansatz, women and other under-represented groups still face both direct and indirect obstacles in their pursuit of a career in astronomy and space science. Discrimination based on gender, skin colour, disability, sexual orientation and other minority statuses persists in our society at large but also in the microcosm of astronomy, astrophysics and planetary science communities.

In this Focus issue of Nature Astronomy we put the spotlight on the issue of equity (or lack thereof) in our community by inviting comments on the different manifestations of this persistent discrimination. The data presented by our authors paint a worrying picture. A dense network of often subconscious and therefore insidious biases and discriminatory behaviours lead to very real deficiencies in the representation of women and minority astronomers in almost every aspect of scientific discourse (from conferences to missions, career prizes and citation counts)."

6. Your Stories of Battling Unconscious Bias
From: Heather Flewelling [heather_at_ifa.hawaii.edu]

by Paul Bisceglio

"Is it possible to be prejudiced without realizing it? In “Is This How Discrimination Ends?,” the writer Jessica Nordell unpacked the complex and controversial science of implicit racial bias—the idea that people can act in biased ways even when they sincerely reject discriminatory ideas. Many readers responded with stories of their own experiences with bias, whether witnessing it, being the victim of it, or recognizing it in themselves."

7. Academic 'Mansplaining' 101
From: Alexander Rudolph [alrudolph_at_cpp.edu]

By Colleen Flaherty

"“Let her speak, please!” That’s what a member of the audience yelled at last weekend’s World Science Festival in New York during a panel on "Pondering the Imponderables: The Biggest Questions of Cosmology." Video of the incident has since gone viral, with many calling it a prime example of "mansplaining" and general sexism."

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Women In Astronomy

Friday, June 9, 2017

AASWomen Newsletter for June 9, 2017

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