Intersection of Science and Politics -- Women Running for Office (#Witches in STEM)

By Angela Speck

All elections are important, but the impending mid-terms are especially so. All over the world there have been rightward swings in governments. And these new governments potentially impact so many groups that are not in the majority: not majority ethnicity/race, not male, not heterosexual, not cisgender, and so on. The intersection of “conservative” social policies with a tendency toward rejecting science means that we (Women Scientists) are feeling beleaguered (along with many other groups).

Many people, especially those in marginalized groups, were more than a little disappointed by the results of the 2016 US general election. Immediately after the presidential inauguration there were marches across the US in support of women’s rights. A few months later another series of demonstrations took place, this time in support of science.  While women are not the only group to feel embattled by the actions of the present administration, this blog is about women. Women and science in fact. And women in science have stepped up like never before to try and take control and be a part of how this country runs.

AASWomen Newsletter for October 26, 2018

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of October 26, 2018
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Maria Patterson, JoEllen McBride, and Ale Aloisi (guest ed.)

This week's issues:

1. How Professional Societies are Dealing with Harassment

2. Letter of Solidarity from Physicists and Astronomy in Solidarity with LGBTIQA+ Folks

3. Why Physics Wasn’t Built by Men

4. Lawrence Krauss and the Legacy of Harassment in Science

5. When You’re the Only Woman

6. Satisfaction in Science

7. Girls Who Game Three Times More Likely to Study STEM, UK Research Finds

8. Job Opportunities

9. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

10. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

11. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

How Professional Societies are Dealing with Harassment

In a September Science editorial, Margaret Hamburg, Susan Hockfield and Steven Chu, who all hold leadership roles in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), wrote that it's time for change: "The scientific community must act with urgency to create an inclusive organizational culture and professional standards of behavior that will allow all of its members to reach their full potential."

Indeed, professional societies and organizations around the United States are taking a stand to address harassment in effective ways. Here are just a few examples of what organizations are doing:

• Last week, the National Science Foundation (NSF) put into effect a policy that requires awardee organizations to notify the agency of (1) any findings or determinations that an NSF-funded principal investigator or co-principal investigator committed harassment, including sexual harassment or sexual assault; and (2) the placement of the principal investigator or co-principal investigator on administrative leave, or of the imposition of any administrative action relating to a harassment or sexual assault finding or investigation. Details on the new policy can be found here.
• In September, the AAAS adopted a policy to sanction fellows who to have violated professional ethics, which includes sexual harassment. In essence, any AAAS member can request "revocation of a fellow's title for breaches that range from harassment to fabricating results". Read a statement from AAAS president Margaret Hamburg and her colleagues here. Note: The status of several fellows has already been revoked.
• Also in September, the U. S. Board on Geographic Names renamed Antarctica's Marchant Glacier to Matataua Glacier after its namesake was found guilty of sexually harassing a graduate student. Read the story here. Wouldn't it be interesting if the IAU adopted similar practices in consideration of its names for planetary and other objects?
• In May, an online petition called on the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to revoke memberships bestowed on people sanctioned for sexual harassment was posted. Find updated information about this effort here.
• In 2017, the American Geophysical Union adopted a policy that includes harassment in its definition of scientific misconduct.  Read the policy here.
• Importantly, the AAS also requires that letters of support for AAS prizes and awards, as noted on the checklist page, "explicitly address whether a nominee's professional conduct over their career exemplifies the principles and expectations noted in the AAS Code of Ethics, the Professional and Ethical Standards for the AAS Journals, the Anti-Harassment Policy for AAS & Division Meetings & Activities, and the Guide to AAS Meeting Etiquette."

AASWomen Newsletter for October 19, 2018

AAS Committee on the Status of Women

October 19, 2018

eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Maria Patterson, JoEllen McBride, and Ale Aloisi (guest ed.)

This week's issues:

1. A personal recommendation for the AAS to collect data to determine participation of underrepresented groups

2. Australia gets Women in STEM Ambassador in astrophysicist professor

3. Sarah Stewart Receives MacArthur "Genius Grant"

4. Breakthrough Prize Honors Early Career Astronomers

5. 2019 ASU Exploration Postdoctoral Fellowship

6. Astronomy is losing women three times faster than men

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A personal recommendation for the AAS to collect data to determine participation of underrepresented groups

By members of the DPS Professional Culture and Climate Subcommittee

In order to determine how new policies affect the equitable participation of astronomers from all backgrounds, we propose that the AAS collect detailed demographic information on its members and use these data to understand the barriers for members of underrepresented groups. While the AAS workforce surveys do ask demographic information (Workforce Survey of 2016 US AAS Members Summary Results), they can not easily be compared to award or author information in the way a member database could. As shown below, collection of demographic data by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) has enabled studies addressing gender disparities in geosciences. Furthermore, the AGU has enacted policy changes based on these findings. Collection of demographic data by AAS would enable determination of areas that are lacking in gender representation, in addition to areas that are lacking in representation with respect to persons with disabilities, underrepresented minorities, etc. This would enable AAS to implement policy changes to enable equitable participation of astronomers from all backgrounds and to test if the new policies are effective.

AASWomen Newsletter for October 12, 2018

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of October 12, 2018
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, Maria Patterson, and JoEllen McBride

This week's issues:

1. Our Current Political Climate and the Confirmation Process: the Community Reacts

2. Reaching for the Stars Without an Invitation

3. Beyond the Numbers on Gender and Research

4. How Do You Find an Alien Ocean? Margaret Kivelson Figured It Out

5. Three Inspiring Role Models Embrace Modern Media To Close The STEM Gender Gap

6. Women occupied only 24% of STEM jobs in 2017 — but there's a way we can fix that

7. The Leaky Pipeline for Postdocs: A study of the time between receiving a PhD and securing a faculty job for male and female astronomers

8. Three Women in Science Who Broke the Glass Ceiling

9. Job Opportunities

10. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

11. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

12. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

Our Current Political Climate and the Confirmation Process: the Community Reacts

By Sarah Tuttle

The last few weeks have been difficult for many folks as a highly politicized confirmation process played out on Capitol Hill. Issues around gender and race swirled barely below the surface as we watched echoes of the past, with Anita Hill reminding us about how we were in some ways reenacting recent history (and in other ways dancing around it). For many of us, this pushed a lot of buttons and renewed memories of trauma even outside of the explicit scope of Dr. Blasey Ford’s Senate testimony – from alcoholic family members, to abusive partners, to harassment or assault at school and work.

It is a lot to carry.

I’ve collected a small number of responses from women throughout our field to give us some space to reflect, to be together in community even when we are many miles apart, and to acknowledge that sometimes the hardest part of our work isn’t the intellectual challenges of our research but existing in a world that resists making room for us to exist.

AASWomen Newsletter for October 05, 2018

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of October 05, 2018
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, Maria Patterson, and JoEllen McBride

This week's issues:

1. Donna Strickland and Frances Arnold win Nobel Prizes

2. What the Nobels are - and aren't - doing to encourage diversity

3. Women of Color in STEM programs research study

4. NAS gathering on preventing sexual harassment

5. Cern scientist: 'Physics built by men - not by invitation'

6. The alpha males of physics

7. California has a new law: No more all-male boards

8. Saving the World, One Science Fair at a Time

9. Job Opportunities

10. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

11. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

12. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

Donna Strickland and Frances Arnold win Nobel Prizes

The winners of the Nobel Prizes were announced this week and two women, Donna Strickland and Frances Arnold, have been honored for their extraordinary contributions to the sciences.

On Tuesday, Donna Strickland became the third woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. She's the first woman to win the prize in 55 years.

Here are a select number of articles about Dr. Strickland's win:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2018/10/02/nobel-prize-physics-awarded-tools-made-light-first-woman-years-honored/?utm_term=.a38c57221bfd

http://time.com/5412840/donna-strickland-nobel-prize-physics/