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
8. Three Women in Science Who Broke the Glass Ceiling
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
1. Our Current Political Climate and the Confirmation Process: the Community Reacts
From: Cristina Thomas via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
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.
Read more at
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2018/10/our-current-political-climate-and.html
Back to top.2. Reaching for the Stars Without an Invitation
From: Alessandra Aloisi [aloisi_at_stsci.edu]
By Jarita Charmian Holbrook, Diane Gu, Sharon Traweek
"White men have long held the lion’s share of jobs, power, and prestige in the sciences. In our own field, astrophysics, women in the United States have participated for more than a century, but not at observatories; mostly they have drawn star maps, constructed catalogs, and served as “computers,” crunching numbers provided by men working at the observatories. (Unfortunately, there are almost no records about minorities working in U.S.-based astronomy.) These positions were less prestigious, and the women were not given equal status; they were not even considered astronomers. In recent decades, astrophysics has undergone a transformation: Many ground-based and space-based observatories are now automated to routinely scan the universe, downloading data into widely accessible repositories, which allows astrophysicists to delegate data collection to specialists rather than collecting data themselves. Could this change affect representation? Through a series of in-depth interviews, our team, based at the University of California, Los Angeles, set out to learn about women’s and minorities’ participation in astrophysics."
Read more at
https://www.americanscientist.org/article/reaching-for-the-stars-without-an-invitation
Back to top.3. Beyond the Numbers on Gender and Research
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]
By Colleen Flaherty
"Gender diversity in the sciences is often discussed in terms of numbers: build research teams with more women on them and innovation will come. That may be true; research suggests it probably is. But a new paper seeks to push science’s gender diversity conversation beyond just composition of teams, to research methods and research questions -- along with how to manage each in different disciplinary and organizational settings. It also suggests that in paying more attention to research methods and questions, research teams might diversify as a result."
Read more at
Back to top.4. How Do You Find an Alien Ocean? Margaret Kivelson Figured It Out
From John Mather [johncm12_at_gmail.com]
By David W. Brown
LOS ANGELES — The data was like nothing Margaret Kivelson and her team of physicists ever expected.
It was December 1996, and the spacecraft Galileo had just flown by Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter. The readings beamed back to Earth suggested a magnetic field emanating from the moon. Europa should not have had a magnetic field, yet there it was — and not even pointed in the right direction.
“This is unexpected,” she recalled saying as the weird data rolled in. “And that’s wonderful.”
Read more at
Back to top.5. Three Inspiring Role Models Embrace Modern Media To Close The STEM Gender Gap
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]
By Amy Blankson
"Like many parents, I relished the opportunity to take my three daughters last year to see Hidden Figures, a movie about three African-American women working at NASA who served as the brains behind the launch into orbit of astronaut John Glenn. After a high-spirited and inspiring ending, I remember walking out of the theater and asking my youngest who was 4 at the time, “So do you think you could become an engineer someday?” “Yes!” she enthusiastically replied. “How about a mathematician?” “Absolutely!” she exclaimed, bouncing on her toes. “How about an astronaut?” To my surprise, she stopped dead in her tracks and said, “No way! Did you see that guy? He almost died in outer space!” I smiled to myself and couldn’t fault her logic. I was just glad that her dreams were not limited by ability, but by desire."
Read more at
Back to top.6. Women occupied only 24% of STEM jobs in 2017 — but there's a way we can fix that
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]
By Marc Veasey and Sylvia Acevedo
"Women and minorities have changed the face of space exploration, saved lives through targeted chemotherapy treatments, and built robots that can three-dimensionally print human tissue.
Yet, these trailblazers often remain "hidden figures," and their discoveries and accomplishments continue to be overlooked. Despite a concerted lack of recognition and a blockbuster hit that details the life of NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, too many of these women remain in the shadows."
Read more at
Back to top.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
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
In a study of job postings at the publicly available database, the Astrophysics Job Rumor Mill, Kevin Flaherty (Williams College) found that "female astronomers are hired on average 4.2±0.4 years after receiving a PhD while male astronomers are typically hired after 5.3±0.4 years. ... [T]he most likely explanation is that female astronomers are leaving the academic labor market, at a rate that is 3-4 times higher than male astronomers."
Read more at
https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.01511
Back to top.8. Three Women in Science Who Broke the Glass Ceiling
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
Dr. Laura Danly, Astronomer and curator of Griffith Observatory, was profiled by Harper's Bazaar, as one women who broke the glass ceiling.
Read more at
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a23063189/women-in-science-glass-ceiling
Back to top.9. 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
- Assistant Professor in Computational Astrophysics, University of Georgia https://www.ugajobsearch.com/postings/33047
- Assistant Professor - Timescales and Rates of Earth Processes, University of Florida https://apply.interfolio.com/55844
- Assistant Professor - Plate Margin Dynamics and Environments, University of Florida https://apply.interfolio.com/55931
- Assistant Professor in Theoretical Physics, York University, Ontario, Canada https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/11862
- Assistant Lecturer in Astronomy and Physics, and Observatory Coordinator, York University, Ontario, Canada https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/11861
- Tenure-Track Astrophysics Assistant Professor, Physics Department, University of Cincinnati, OH. https://career8.successfactors.com/career?career_ns=job_listing&company=UCPROD&career_job_req_id=34024
- Tenure-Track Faculty Position in Theory at the University of Maryland (selection criteria include contributions to inclusivity) https://www.astro.umd.edu/employment/archive/Ad%20for%20website.pdf
- Tenure Track Faculty Position in Astronomy or Astrophysics, University of Kansas https://jobregister.aas.org/ad/4219cd71
Back to top.10. 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.
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Back to top.11. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
Join AAS Women List by email:
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Back to top.12. Access to Past Issues
https://cswa.aas.org/AASWOMEN.html
Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.
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