Women In Astronomy: AASWomen Newsletter for September 21, 2018

AAS Committee on the Status of Women AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of September 21, 2018
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, Maria Patterson, and JoEllen McBride

This week's issues:

6. New analysis suggests women's success in STEM Ph.D. programs has much to do with having female peers, especially in their first year in graduate school

7. Isolated female students more likely to drop out of PhD programmes

8. How female scientists can confront gender bias in the workplace

9. Not One More Generation: Women in Science Take On Sexual Harassment

10. A Gender Scholar's Visit to ESOF 2018: She Came, She Saw, She Ranted

11. Men vs. Women speaking time in conference calls and colloquiums

12. Job Opportunities

13. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

14. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

15. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

1. Career Profile: Executive Director
From: Cristina Thomas via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy is compiling interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.

Dr. Stella Kafka is the Executive Director of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). She enjoys enabling scientific research and in addition to her academic positions has worked as the CTIO REU/PIA site director and in the American Institute of Physics publishing group.

2. Exploring how gender figures the identity trajectories of two doctoral students in observational astrophysics
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]

"This study provides insights into the experiences of doctoral astrophysics that figure students’ insider or outsider identities, and the role that gender plays in the shaping of those identity and career trajectories."

Read the study at

https://journals.aps.org/prper/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.14.010146

3. AAAS establishes policy whereby Fellow status can be revoked
From: Nancy Morrison [nancy.morrison_at_utoledo.edu]

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has just adopted a policy whereby the status of Fellow can be revoked in cases of scientific misconduct or breach of professional ethics, including sexual harassment. The status of AAAS Fellow is an award for meritorious service in research or to the community of science. A statement from the President of AAAS follows. The policy can be found here: https://www.aaas.org/FellowsRevocation?et_rid=104940947&et_cid=2371221

Statement of AAAS President Margaret A. Hamburg

"Today the AAAS Council voted on and approved a Fellow revocation policy. This new policy, which will go into effect on October 15, 2018, provides a mechanism and procedure for AAAS to consider and act to revoke the status of an elected AAAS Fellow ‘in cases of proven scientific misconduct, serious breaches of professional ethics, or when the Fellow in the view of AAAS no longer merits the status of Fellow.’ This includes a revocation procedure in cases of sexual and gender harassment.

"Harassment has no place in science. We must do more as a scientific community to create a respectful and supportive environment for our colleagues and students. We need effective and responsive policies in academic departments and institutions, scientific societies, and government agencies that define expectations of behavior and provide clear reporting processes, as well as consequences for violations."

- Margaret A. Hamburg, President, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and Chair, AAAS Council

4. In the aftermath of #MeToo, which names in science should be replaced?
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]

By Jane C. Hu

"The US Board on Geographic Names has changed the name of a glacier in Antarctica from Marchant Glacier to Matataua, reports Earther‘s Maddie Stone.

The new name is a result of the latest string of #MeToo reports in academia. Multiple women have accused geologist David Marchant—for whom the glacier was name, in 1999—of sexual harassment. In February, Boston University placed Marchant on administrative leave. Marchant sdenies the charges and is appealing the university’s decision."

5. Science Walks, Money Talks
From: Alexander Rudolf [alrudolph_at_cpp.edu]

By Colleen Flaherty

"The National Science Foundation will exercise the power of the purse -- or, more appropriately, the grant -- in deterring and combating harassment in academic science. The foundation previously announced its intention to do so, but plans revealed this week show just how the policy will work.

Starting 30 days from today, the NSF will require awardee organizations -- meaning institutions, not individual grantees -- to notify it within 10 days of any findings or determinations that any NSF-funded principal or co-principal investigator committed harassment, including sexual harassment or assault, as well as any related administrative actions or sanctions. Institutions also must notify the NSF when it places a PI or co-PI on administrative leave.

Following notification, the NSF will consult with the institution to determine what action is necessary. Possible actions include substituting or removing PIs from grants and reducing, suspending or eliminating funding."

6. New analysis suggests women's success in STEM Ph.D. programs has much to do with having female peers, especially in their first year in graduate school
From: Alexander Rudolf [alrudolph_at_cpp.edu] and Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]

By Colleen Flaherty

"Having female peers -- even just a few of them -- can increase a woman’s odds of making it through her Ph.D. program in the natural sciences, technology, engineering or math, says a new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Based on a sample of gradate students enrolled in STEM programs at public institutions in Ohio, women in Ph.D. cohorts with no female peers were about 12 percentage points less likely than their male peers to earn a doctorate within six years. One standard deviation in the share of female students in a cohort increased a woman’s chance of this "on time” graduation by about five percentage points. Much of that difference was attributable to a reduction in the dropout rate within the first year of graduate school. The findings were most pronounced in programs that are typically male-dominated."

Read the original study at

http://www.nber.org/papers/w25028

7. Isolated female students more likely to drop out of PhD programmes
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]

By Michael Allen

We know that feeling like you belong in a community matters, especially in the sciences and especially if you are a member of an underrepresented minority group. In a recent study, scientists at Ohio State University found that "when female STEM post graduates were the only women in their intake group, they were 12% less likely to complete their PhD than their male counterparts."

Read the original study at

http://www.nber.org/papers/w25028

8. How female scientists can confront gender bias in the workplace
From: Jessica Mink [jmink_at_cfa.harvard.edu]

By Kendall Powell

"How female scientists can confront gender bias in the workplace: Six researchers offer tips for navigating through and beyond gender barriers."

9. Not One More Generation: Women in Science Take On Sexual Harassment
From: Jessica Mink [jmink_at_cfa.harvard.edu]

By Laurel Oldach

"'I was driven out of science by a harasser in the 1980s.'

Coming from a woman who has since helped to found a scientific society, served as director of the Genetics Society of America and presented her research on sexual harassment to a 2018 National Academies panel, it is a surprising statement. But Sherry Marts left academia after finishing her Ph.D. at Duke and never went back.

2018 has been a banner year for confronting sexual harassment in science. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine published a report on the high prevalence of harassment of women in science, and the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation are updating their sexual harassment policies. It appears that science might be catching up with the #MeToo movement, which has raised awareness of workplace sexual harassment. However, critics say that large institutions are moving too incrementally and could do much more."

10. A Gender Scholar's Visit to ESOF 2018: She Came, She Saw, She Ranted

From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]

Ea Høg Utoft, a PhD candidate at the Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy at Aarhus University in Denmark, attended the European Science Open Forum. During the conference, she noted that "no less than eight sessions and panels were held on issues of gender in research and education." But many topics were not discussed and she summarizes points of critique based on the following three questions: (1) Can we please stop talking about women’s lack of confidence?! (2) Where are discussions of men and masculinities in all of this? and (3) Where are all the gender in organisation/gender in higher education scholars?

11. Men vs. Women speaking time in conference calls and colloquiums
From: Stella Offner [soffner_at_astro.as.utexas.edu] and Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]

[editor: these are somewhat related so they are grouped together] Men speak more than women in both conference calls and in colloquiums

Article 1: "Men Get the First, Last and Every Other Word on Earnings Calls" By Felice Maranz

"In a study of more than 155,000 company conference calls over the past 19 years, Prattle found that men spoke 92 percent of the time. That’s partly because male executives and analysts far outnumber women in those roles. It’s also because men just talk more."

Article 2: "The Missing Women" By Colleen Flaherty

"Study finds that men speak twice as often as women do at colloquiums, a difference that can't be explained away by rank, speaker pool composition or women's interest in giving talks."

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/12/19/study-finds-men-speak-twice-often-do-women-colloquiums

12. 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

- Postdoctoral Researchers in Galaxy Evolution Theory, STScI https://stsci.slideroom.com/#/permalink/program/45484

- Learning Coach - STEM Center, MiraCosta College https://careers.insidehighered.com/job/1605573/learning-coach-stem-center

- Green Bank Observatory Scientist, West Virginia https://jobregister.aas.org/ad/10d63f2a

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Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.