Issue of July 01, 2022
eds: Jeremy Bailin, Nicolle Zellner, Alessandra Aloisi, and Sethanne Howard
[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. Be well! --eds.]
This week's issues:
1. Crosspost: The Unwritten Laws of Physics for Black Women
2. The systemic factors wedging a persistent gender gap in science
3. Hiring checklists help but don’t solve faculty’s biases
4. L’Oréal and UNESCO Honor 15 Women Scientists Including Françoise Combes
5. Research participants requested for study on women's experience with STEM mentors
7. Reach Across the Stars: New App Offers Interactive Exploration of Women in Astronomy
9. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
10. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
An online version of this newsletter will be available at http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/ at 3:00 PM ET every Friday.
1. Crosspost: The Unwritten Laws of Physics for Black Women
From: Bryné Hadnott via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
Written by Katrina Miller for Wired
At the entrance to my lab’s clean room, I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror: I look like a clown. I’m drowning in a disposable coverall that hangs off of me in droopy folds, and my size 7½ feet are swallowed up by the smallest rubber boots the lab had on hand—a men’s size 12. The thick mass of curls framing my face only accentuates the caricature.
Reaching for the box of hairnets perched on a nearby counter, I fish out a thin, papery cap with a sigh. How the hell is this going to fit over my fro? I flatten my roots and tie my hair into the tightest bun I can muscle. Stretched as far as it’ll go, the hairnet only covers the back of my head. I position another over my forehead and a third to straddle the middle. Has no physicist here ever been a woman or had to contend with hair like mine? With effort, I tug the hood of my coverall over the hairnets. The taut fabric rustles loudly in my ears as I open the door to join my peers.
I am here, in a basement lab at the University of Chicago, to work on a small-scale particle detector that might help in the search for dark matter, the invisible glue that physicists believe holds the universe together. Dark matter emits no light and, as far as anyone can tell, doesn’t interact with ordinary matter in any familiar ways. But we know it exists from the way it influences the motions of the stars. The allure of dark matter is what inspired me to pursue a PhD in physics. But in more ways than one, I keep feeling like I just don’t fit.
Read more at
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2022/06/crosspost-unwritten-laws-of-physics-for.html
Back to top.2. The systemic factors wedging a persistent gender gap in science
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
Many inequities in science show up and are exacerbated by funding decisions. In this deep dive that centers focuses on science in Australia and also looks beyond, including to examples from STScI, Clare Watson investigates the current status and future prospects of addressing these systematic factors.
Read more at
https://cosmosmagazine.com/people/society/gender-gap-science
Back to top.3. Hiring checklists help but don’t solve faculty’s biases
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
By Jyllian Kemsley
"The use of rubrics to evaluate job candidates is touted as a way to reduce bias and improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in hiring. But few real-world studies exist to demonstrate that checklists of hiring criteria have the intended results, according to a group of sociologists and engineers at the University of California San Diego. To address that data gap, the researchers evaluated rubric use in four engineering faculty searches. They found that women and men were hired in more-equal numbers when a rubric was used, but gender bias was still evident in rubric scoring. The researchers concluded that rubrics should include a calibration metric that can be verified independently—such as comparing a candidate’s number of papers to productivity scores given by evaluators—to detect bias in scoring."
Read more at
https://cen.acs.org/careers/women-in-science/Hiring-checklists-help-dont-solve/100/i24
Read the full study at
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm2329
Back to top.4. L’Oréal and UNESCO Honor 15 Women Scientists Including Françoise Combes
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
By Jennifer Weil
"The laureates of the 2020, 2021 and 2022 For Women in Science awards were celebrated on Thursday evening in the vast auditorium at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris. The L’Oréal Foundation in partnership with UNESCO annually recognizes the achievement of five female scientists from different geographic zones and disciplines. But due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was not possible to hold an in-person event for numerous years.”
The 2021 laureates included astrophysicist Françoise Combes.
Read more at
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/l-al-unesco-honor-15-200516025.html
https://www.loreal.com/en/articles/commitments/article-page-francoise-combes-fwis
Back to top.5. Research participants requested for study on women's experience with STEM mentors
From: Alyvia Fondren [agf11_at_albion.edu]
My name is Alyvia Fondren, and I am an undergraduate student at Albion College in Michigan. I am working with Dr. Andrea Francis in the Psychology Department and Dr. Nicolle Zellner in the Physics Department in hopes of understanding more about women’s experiences with STEM mentors during their undergraduate experience. I am also interested in knowing whether there is a difference between women’s experiences with their mentors at liberal arts colleges compared to large universities. Determining whether there is a difference in experiences at one type of institution over another may help guide the creation of mentorship programs for women in STEM.
You will be asked to complete a questionnaire that asks you to complete questions about possible mentorship experiences and the type of undergraduate program that you attended. Your participation is entirely voluntary and will take no more than 15 minutes.
Link to the study:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YXQRVDC
For any additional information desired, please contact Dr. Andrea Francis at afrancis_at_albion.edu or Dr. Nicolle Zellner at nzellner_at_albion.edu. A request for more information does not obligate you to participate in this study.
Back to top.6. Maria Mitchell Death Anniversary: What You Have to Know About the First Female Professional Astronomer in the US
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
By Isabella James
"Maria Mitchell, an American astronomer, died on this day 133 years ago. For those too lazy to do the math, she passed away on June 28, 1889.
Considered as the first female professional astronomer in the United States, Mitchell had a successful career not just in the field of astronomy, but also as an educator, naturalist, and even a librarian. An asteroid as well as a lunar crater were even named in her honor."
Read more at
Back to top.7. Reach Across the Stars: New App Offers Interactive Exploration of Women in Astronomy
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
By Nathaniel Scharping
"There are countless examples of women contributing in meaningful ways to astronomy — too many for one article! To learn more about the rich history of women astronomers, as well as the many female scientists advancing our knowledge today, check out Reach Across the Stars, a new augmented reality app from NASA.
The free app features special 360 degree AR tours narrated by leading scientists that let you fly to Mars, float through the International Space Station, get a behind-the-scenes look at the Mars 2020 rover and much more! You can also learn about new science firsthand with interviews with awesome scientists like Christina Hernández, a systems engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA astronauts Cady Coleman and Jessica Watkins and computer scientist and astronomer Wanda Diaz Merced."
Read more at
Find the app at
https://www.sciencenearme.org/reach-across-the-stars-1
Back to top.8. Job Opportunities
For those interested in increasing excellence and diversity in their organizations, a list of resources and advice is here:
https://aas.org/comms/cswa/resources/Diversity#howtoincrease
- Education and Outreach Specialist for Earth to Sky program, SSAI, Greenbelt MD or remote
https://workforcenow.adp.com/mascsr/default/mdf/recruitment/recruitment.html?cid=a40f480a-47ae-461b-bf11-ceedb843d226&ccId=19000101_000001&jobId=446321&lang=en_US
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_lists.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.
Back to top.10. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
Join AAS Women List through the online portal:
To Subscribe, go to https://aas.simplelists.com and in the "Subscribe" area, add in your name, email address, select "The AASWomen Weekly Newsletter", and click subscribe. You will be sent an email with a link to click to confirm subscription.
To unsubscribe from AAS Women by email:
Go to https://aas.simplelists.com in the "My account and unsubscriptions", type your email address. You will receive an email with a link to access your account, from there you can click the unsubscribe link for this mailing list.
Back to top.11. Access to Past Issues
https://aas.org/comms/cswa/AASWOMEN
Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.
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