Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Astro2020 Decadal Survey White Papers

The National Academies for Science, Engineering, and Medicine recently solicited white papers for the Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics (Astro2020). The Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy submitted two white papers to the call for the state of the profession consideration. Our papers were written based on preliminary results from our climate survey conducted this past spring. We want to thank the community members that took the time to provide such crucial and detailed feedback. Your contributions allowed us to provide clear, actionable recommendations that federal agencies can implement to address sexual harassment and career development for women and underserved minorities in the field of astronomy. You can access our papers at the links provided below.

Friday, July 26, 2019

AASWOMEN Newsletter for July 26, 2019

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
At the Mojave Desert in California on Thursday, July 18, 2019 over 107,000 solar mirrors reflected the moonlight to create a portrait of Margaret Hamilton. She led the team that developed the onboard flight software of Apollo 11. (Credit: Google)
AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of July 26, 2019
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Maria Patterson, JoEllen McBride, and Alessandra Aloisi

[AAS has migrated their email system to Microsoft Exchange, so please check your spam folder if you did not receive the newsletter this week. It is no longer possible to subscribe or unsubscribe to the AASWomen newsletter by means of Google Groups. We have updated our subscribe and unsubscribe instructions below. Please follow us on social media for updates and thank you for bearing with us as we work out all the kinks.
Twitter @AAS_Women Facebook https://bit.ly/2PkU9of]

This week's issues:

1. Celebrating the Women of Apollo

2. A moonlit tribute to a moon landing icon

3. Still Soliciting Memories of Margaret Burbidge

4. Imaging Women in the Space Age

5. The Woman Who Discovered the Cause of Global Warming Was Long Overlooked

6. Women in science: Smashing glass ceilings and glass walls

7. Does Gender Bias Still Affect Women in Science?

8. Inclusion is what makes diversity stick

9. Developing Skills for Leadership Roles

10. The reward and risk of social media for academics

11. Job Opportunities

12. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

13. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

14. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Celebrating the Women of Apollo

Splashdown! Today marks the 50th anniversary of the return of Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins, after a historic mission that saw Neil and Buzz on the lunar surface for about 3 hours. In mid-1969, there were about 100 women, including 16 engineers, serving in top positions at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. But thousands of other women around the country also supported the Apollo program, before, during, and after 1969. Many of them have recently been interviewed as part of the 50th anniversary, and their stories have appeared in various news outlets. For easy reference, we list many here and you can find more here and here. If you find even more (and we hope you do!), please let us know in the comments section. As we go forward to the Moon with Artemis, including the first women landing on the lunar surface by 2024 and onward to Mars, women around the world will continue to leave indelible marks on the Moon and throughout the solar system.

Friday, July 19, 2019

AASWomen Newsletter for July 19, 2019

AAS Committee on the Status of Women AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of July 19, 2019
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Maria Patterson, and JoEllen McBride

[AAS has migrated their email system to Microsoft Exchange, so please check your spam folder if you did not receive the newsletter this week. It is no longer possible to subscribe or unsubscribe to the AASWomen newsletter by means of Google Groups. We have updated our subscribe and unsubscribe instructions below. Please follow us on social media for updates and thank you for bearing with us as we work out all the kinks.
Twitter @AAS_Women Facebook https://bit.ly/2PkU9of

Margaret W. "Hap" Brennecke in 1964, Credit: NASA
This week's issues:

1. Your Memories of Dr. Margaret Burbidge

2. Margaret "Hap" Brennecke: The woman who welded Apollo's rockets

3. Women of Apollo

4. A Woman's Place is in Space: Meet Eight Asian American Women Reaching for the Stars

5. The Black Women Food Scientists Who Created Meals For Astronauts

6. To Make It to the Moon, Women Have to Escape Earth's Gender Bias

7. While NASA Was Landing on the Moon, Many African-Americans Sought Economic Justice Instead

8. Three generations of space experts react to the Moon landings

9. SETI Institute Collaborates with Girl Scouts to Develop New Space Science Badges

10. Science history: Esther Conwell 'jump-started the computer age'

11. The universal Universe or making astronomy inclusive

12. Jeffrey Epstein liked palling around with scientists - What do the think now?

13. How Coding Has Changed (And Not) For Women In The Past 30 Years

14. Girls' superb verbal skills may contribute to the gender gap in math

15. At STEM Competitions, Gender Norms Still Hold Girls Back

16. Astronomy Club Sets Netflix Sketch Comedy Series With Kenya Barris Producing

17. Job Opportunities

18. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

19. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

20. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Your Memories of Dr. Margaret Burbidge

AP Photo | Annie Gracy [CC BY-SA 4.0] via Wikimedia Commons

In 1971, Margaret Burbidge refused to accept the AAS Council's Cannon Prize because "the prize, available only to women, was in itself discriminatory." The Council's response was to set up a committee, the "Special Committee on the Cannon Prize," which not only dealt with this issue but also recommended that the AAS review the status of women in astronomy. These events were the catalyst that started the Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy (CSWA).

On her 100th Birthday, August 12, the CSWA would like the community to share their memories of the astronomer who verified nucleosynthesis in stars, measured redshifts to some of the first quasars, and helped develop the Faint Object Spectrograph onboard the Hubble Space Telescope--among many other accomplishments. Please use the form below to reminisce. There is space to leave your name, institution, and job title, but these are not required. Your memories will be posted on the CSWA Women in Astronomy Blog on August 12 and shared with Dr. Burbidge.

Submit your memories at

https://forms.gle/s56ELEjHzsHz3VEaA

Friday, July 12, 2019

AASWomen Newsletter for July 12, 2019

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of July 12, 2019
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Maria Patterson, JoEllen McBride, and Alessandra Aloisi

[AAS has migrated their email system to Microsoft Exchange, so please check your spam folder if you did not receive the newsletter this week. It is no longer possible to subscribe or unsubscribe to the AASWomen newsletter by means of Google Groups. We have updated our subscribe and unsubscribe instructions below. Please follow us on social media for updates and thank you for bearing with us as we work out all the kinks.
Twitter @AAS_Women, Facebook https://bit.ly/2PkU9of]

This week's issues:

1. Crosspost: Pre-registration Open for the Inclusive Astronomy 2 Conference
2. Register now to watch the first Astro2020 steering committee meeting!
3. Education Professional Development Mini-Grant Opportunity Now Open
4. Women are less supportive of space exploration – getting a woman on the Moon might change that
5. Astronaut Barbie has landed, and it’s one giant leap for women in STEM 
ESA Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti
and her Barbie (stylist.co.uk image)
6. How a decision-analysis tool helped one scientist couple make some tough career choices
7. These young scientists will shape the next 50 years of Moon research  
8. Queer voices in palaeontology  
9. How I lost my identity — and embraced a new one
10. Why Men Thought Women Weren’t Made to Vote
11. Who gets grant money? The (gendered) words decide.
12. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
13. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
14. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

Monday, July 8, 2019

Crosspost: Pre-registration Open for the Inclusive Astronomy 2 Conference

It has been four years since the 2015 Nashville Inclusive Astronomy meeting, an event that brought astronomers together with sociologists, policy makers, and leaders in the field to discuss issues affecting underrepresented groups in astronomy. The Nashville Recommendations, which emphasize equity and intersectionality, build upon a rich history of work to broaden participation and improve climates.

We now have the opportunity to bring together the astronomy community to discuss the current state of the profession and make recommendations for the 2020s and beyond. Specifically, we will discuss community expectations on inclusivity and representation, evaluate our progress towards meeting equity goals, and address the needs of marginalized groups in the workforce. We will advance these broad goals by focusing on barriers in professional development (e.g., training, jobs, promotion, tenure) and barriers to accessing resources (e.g., funding, telescopes, facilities, data).

Friday, July 5, 2019

AASWomen Newsletter for July 5, 2019

AAS Committee on the Status of Women AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of July 05, 2019

eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Maria Patterson, JoEllen McBride, and Alessandra Aloisi

[AAS has migrated their email system to Microsoft Exchange, so please check your spam folder if you did not receive the newsletter this week. It is no longer possible to subscribe or unsubscribe to the AASWomen newsletter by means of Google Groups. We have updated our subscribe and unsubscribe instructions below. Please follow us on social media for updates and thank you for bearing with us as we work out all the kinks.
Twitter @AAS_Women Facebook https://bit.ly/2PkU9of

Shawn Hitchcock (center) works with graduate students Fatima Olayemi Obe (left) and Marian Aba Addo, see item 4


This week's issues:

1. The Advocacy Axis

2. NASA changes how it divvies up telescope time to reduce gender bias

3. At 21, Ann Montgomery Became a Lead Engineer at NASA, Managing the Cameras and Other Crucial Gear Used on the Moon

4. Making invisible work in STEM more visible

5. Women feel inferior and less suited to Stem jobs than men

6. Katharine Gebbie

7. Unstoppable women: These 3 astronomy lovers will inspire you to reach for the stars

8. Teaching ingenuity

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

Monday, July 1, 2019

The Advocacy Axis

Adapted from a Plenary talk given at the 234th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

By Joan Schmelz, PhD

New high-profile sexual harassment cases continue to appear in the press almost daily. A few years ago, a cluster of these cases involved Astronomers. At the time, I decided to talk to the press, in part to help take the heat off of the Title IX complainants, several of whom wished to remain anonymous. Here’s one of my quotes from back then:

“We have to find a way to change the system - to take the pressure off the young women in the most vulnerable stages of their careers and shift it to the senior men, many of whom have admitted to knowing this ‘open secret’ for years if not decades.”

--Joan Schmelz (Oct 2015)

A strange thing happened as a result of that publicity. About a dozen senior male astronomers (individuals in our scientific community with the most privilege) sought me out to tell me that they had known about the harassment in one or more of these cases, but had never intervened. Here’s an abbreviated list of the reasons they gave for doing/saying nothing:

  • It was none of my business
  • I didn’t want to intrude
  • I didn’t know what to do
  • I thought I might make it worse
  • It’s not my problem
  • Boys will be boys