Crosspost: Women Are Creating a New Culture for Astronomy

Written by Ann Finkbeiner for Scientific American

Ekta Patel, a Miller postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley, wants other women in the field to know that they can be themselves and be great scientists. 

Some years ago I made up a list of things I was tired of reading in profiles of women scientists: how she was the first woman to be hired, say, or to lead a group, or to win some important prize. I had just been assigned a profile of a splendid woman astronomer, and her “firsts” said nothing about the woman and everything about the culture of astronomy: a hierarchy in which the highest ranks have historically included only scientists who are male, white and protective of their prerogatives. My list evolved into the “Finkbeiner test,” and to abide by it, I pretended we had suddenly leaped into a new world in which gender was irrelevant and could be ignored. I would treat the person I was interviewing like she was just an astronomer.

Later, working on another story, I started hearing about a cohort of young women astronomers who were the ones to call if I wanted to talk to the field’s best. If the top of the scientific hierarchy now included large numbers of women, I wondered whether they might live in a post–Finkbeiner test world—that is, whether they were just astronomers, not “women astronomers.” I turned out to be 180 degrees wrong. True, they are at the top, but they are outspokenly women astronomers, and they are remaking astronomy.

Check out the rest of the article at the link below and learn more about the next generation of women astronomers creating a culture of inclusivity and belonging. And look out for a quote from CSWA chair, Nicolle Zellner!

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/women-are-creating-a-new-culture-for-astronomy/