AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of May 3, 2019
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Maria Patterson, and JoEllen McBride
[We have migrated the newsletter to a new mailing system. We thank you for your patience as we work through the issues. Please check your spam folder if you did not receive the newsletter this week. We continue to work on developing new instructions for subscribing and unsubscribing. --eds.]
This week's issues:
1. Cross-post: In lopsided vote, U.S. science academy backs move to eject sexual harassers
2. National Academy of Sciences … Historic Number of Women Elected to Its Membership
3. An Engineering School With Half of Its Leadership Female? How Did That Happen?
4. Why scientist-mums in the United States need better parental-support policies
5. Male researchers’ ‘vague’ language more likely to win grants
6. Maria Kirch was the first woman to discover a comet, but her husband took the credit
7. Seven ways scientists handle technology challenges in resource-poor settings
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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Cross-post: In lopsided vote, U.S. science academy backs move to eject sexual harassers
From: Cristina Thomas via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
… [M]embers of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) today voted overwhelmingly in favor of amending the elite organization’s bylaws to allow ejection of members who breach the group’s new Code of Conduct. … In a recent article in Science, Meredith Wadman discussed the vote which occurred this week at the NAS's annual business meeting. This vote only polled those who attended the meeting and is not final. All academy members will be given the opportunity to vote in the coming months.
Read more at
https://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2019/05/cross-post-in-lopsided-vote-us-science.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. National Academy of Sciences … Historic Number of Women Elected to Its Membership
From: Rick Fienberg [rick.fienberg_at_aas.org]
The National Academy of Sciences elected a historic number of women to its membership.
Read the press release and see the list at
http://www.nasonline.org/news-and-multimedia/news/2019-nas-election.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. An Engineering School With Half of Its Leadership Female? How Did That Happen?
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]
By Alec D. Gallimore
"Often when I tell people that we have filled half of the top leadership positions at the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering with women, I can almost see the unspoken assumption in many of their eyes: They think we did it by passing over better-qualified male candidates.
At the 10 U.S. engineering schools with the largest research budgets, women make up about 17 percent of the faculty. It’s always noticed when women constitute a higher-than-usual proportion of an engineering college’s leadership, but somehow we don’t make the same assumptions about talent when all of a school’s top positions are filled by men."
Read more at
https://www.chronicle.com/article/An-Engineering-School-With/246214?cid=wsinglestory
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Why scientist-mums in the United States need better parental-support policies
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
"The most physically and emotionally demanding times of motherhood — pregnancy, delivery and recovery, and breastfeeding — often coincide with a female researcher’s most intense push up the career ladder, from graduate studies to the first years in an independent position. ... At universities across the United States, support provisions for mothers ... vary enormously, and even across departments, resulting in piecemeal policies."
Read more at
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01315-2?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=4f87d0e5b9-briefing-dy-20190501&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-4f87d0e5b9-42077799
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Male researchers’ ‘vague’ language more likely to win grants
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
In a recent article published by the National Bureau of Economics, Julian Kolev (Southern Methodist University) and co-authors report that “Despite blinded review, female applicants receive significantly lower scores, which cannot be explained by reviewer characteristics, proposal topics, or ex-ante measures of applicant quality. … results reveal that gender differences in writing and communication are a significant contributor to gender disparities in the evaluation of science and innovation.” In summary, the investigators consistently showed “that female reviewers’ scores do not favour proposals from male applicants in the way that male reviewers’ scores do.” One way around that is to increase the number of female reviewers.
Read more at
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01402-4?error=cookies_not_supported&code=9b4f18be-6db0-4770-ad07-c9f5d3eeafbc
Read the journal article at
https://www.nber.org/papers/w25759?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=2fd338d820-briefing-dy-20190502&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-2fd338d820-42077799
[Purchase may be required to access the article. --eds.]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Maria Kirch was the first woman to discover a comet, but her husband took the credit
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]
Unfortunately, most of what happened to Maria Winklemann-Kirch 300 years ago still happens today.
Read more at
https://massivesci.com/articles/maria-kirch-comet-astronomy-margaretha-aurora-borealis-saturn-venus-conjunction/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Seven ways scientists handle technology challenges in resource-poor settings
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
Several researchers offer suggestions and tips on who to work effectively when resources may be scares.
Read more at
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01314-3?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=2fd338d820-briefing-dy-20190502&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-2fd338d820-42077799
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. 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/#howtoincrease
- AURA Chief Diversity Officer
https://recruiting2.ultipro.com/SPA1004AURA/JobBoard/57b96f30-6a4b-42cc-8f73-d417a17b54e9/OpportunityDetail?opportunityId=4140cd41-5ff2-498b-b0eb-d01126e010cd
- Scientist, Small Bodies of the Solar System, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
https://jpl.jobs/jobs/2019-10610-Scientist-Small-Bodies-of-the-Solar-System-2019-10610
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9. 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.
Please remember to replace "_at_" in the e-mail address above.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
AAS has migrated the mailing list for this newsletter to Mailman. Please watch this space for updated instructions on subscribing and unsubscribing to the AASWomen Newsletter.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11. Access to Past Issues
https://cswa.aas.org/AASWOMEN.html
Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.
This week's issues:
1. Cross-post: In lopsided vote, U.S. science academy backs move to eject sexual harassers
2. National Academy of Sciences … Historic Number of Women Elected to Its Membership3. An Engineering School With Half of Its Leadership Female? How Did That Happen?
4. Why scientist-mums in the United States need better parental-support policies
5. Male researchers’ ‘vague’ language more likely to win grants
6. Maria Kirch was the first woman to discover a comet, but her husband took the credit
7. Seven ways scientists handle technology challenges in resource-poor settings
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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Cross-post: In lopsided vote, U.S. science academy backs move to eject sexual harassers
From: Cristina Thomas via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
… [M]embers of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) today voted overwhelmingly in favor of amending the elite organization’s bylaws to allow ejection of members who breach the group’s new Code of Conduct. … In a recent article in Science, Meredith Wadman discussed the vote which occurred this week at the NAS's annual business meeting. This vote only polled those who attended the meeting and is not final. All academy members will be given the opportunity to vote in the coming months.
Read more at
https://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2019/05/cross-post-in-lopsided-vote-us-science.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. National Academy of Sciences … Historic Number of Women Elected to Its Membership
From: Rick Fienberg [rick.fienberg_at_aas.org]
The National Academy of Sciences elected a historic number of women to its membership.
Read the press release and see the list at
http://www.nasonline.org/news-and-multimedia/news/2019-nas-election.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. An Engineering School With Half of Its Leadership Female? How Did That Happen?
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]
By Alec D. Gallimore
"Often when I tell people that we have filled half of the top leadership positions at the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering with women, I can almost see the unspoken assumption in many of their eyes: They think we did it by passing over better-qualified male candidates.
At the 10 U.S. engineering schools with the largest research budgets, women make up about 17 percent of the faculty. It’s always noticed when women constitute a higher-than-usual proportion of an engineering college’s leadership, but somehow we don’t make the same assumptions about talent when all of a school’s top positions are filled by men."
Read more at
https://www.chronicle.com/article/An-Engineering-School-With/246214?cid=wsinglestory
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Why scientist-mums in the United States need better parental-support policies
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
"The most physically and emotionally demanding times of motherhood — pregnancy, delivery and recovery, and breastfeeding — often coincide with a female researcher’s most intense push up the career ladder, from graduate studies to the first years in an independent position. ... At universities across the United States, support provisions for mothers ... vary enormously, and even across departments, resulting in piecemeal policies."
Read more at
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01315-2?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=4f87d0e5b9-briefing-dy-20190501&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-4f87d0e5b9-42077799
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Male researchers’ ‘vague’ language more likely to win grants
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
In a recent article published by the National Bureau of Economics, Julian Kolev (Southern Methodist University) and co-authors report that “Despite blinded review, female applicants receive significantly lower scores, which cannot be explained by reviewer characteristics, proposal topics, or ex-ante measures of applicant quality. … results reveal that gender differences in writing and communication are a significant contributor to gender disparities in the evaluation of science and innovation.” In summary, the investigators consistently showed “that female reviewers’ scores do not favour proposals from male applicants in the way that male reviewers’ scores do.” One way around that is to increase the number of female reviewers.
Read more at
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01402-4?error=cookies_not_supported&code=9b4f18be-6db0-4770-ad07-c9f5d3eeafbc
Read the journal article at
https://www.nber.org/papers/w25759?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=2fd338d820-briefing-dy-20190502&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-2fd338d820-42077799
[Purchase may be required to access the article. --eds.]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Maria Kirch was the first woman to discover a comet, but her husband took the credit
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]
Unfortunately, most of what happened to Maria Winklemann-Kirch 300 years ago still happens today.
Read more at
https://massivesci.com/articles/maria-kirch-comet-astronomy-margaretha-aurora-borealis-saturn-venus-conjunction/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Seven ways scientists handle technology challenges in resource-poor settings
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
Several researchers offer suggestions and tips on who to work effectively when resources may be scares.
Read more at
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01314-3?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=2fd338d820-briefing-dy-20190502&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-2fd338d820-42077799
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. 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/#howtoincrease
- AURA Chief Diversity Officer
https://recruiting2.ultipro.com/SPA1004AURA/JobBoard/57b96f30-6a4b-42cc-8f73-d417a17b54e9/OpportunityDetail?opportunityId=4140cd41-5ff2-498b-b0eb-d01126e010cd
- Scientist, Small Bodies of the Solar System, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
https://jpl.jobs/jobs/2019-10610-Scientist-Small-Bodies-of-the-Solar-System-2019-10610
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9. 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.
Please remember to replace "_at_" in the e-mail address above.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
AAS has migrated the mailing list for this newsletter to Mailman. Please watch this space for updated instructions on subscribing and unsubscribing to the AASWomen Newsletter.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11. Access to Past Issues
https://cswa.aas.org/AASWOMEN.html
Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.
