AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of September 1, 2023
eds: Jeremy Bailin, Nicolle Zellner, Sethanne Howard, and Hannah Jang-Condell
[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. --eds.]
This week's issues:
2. A history of anti-racism in science
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| Sethanne Howard with Leo Goldberg and Senator Goldwater |
4. Gender disparities limit chances for women PhD students training to be new inventors, says new research
5. They Remembered the Lost Women of the Manhattan Project So That None of Us Would Forget
6. Invisible women: Gender representation in high school science courses across Australia
7. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
8. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
9. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter
An online version of this newsletter will be available at http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/ at 3:00 PM ET every Friday.
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1. Career Profile: A Peripatetic Astronomer
From: Sethanne Howard via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
Below is our interview with Dr. Sethanne Howard, who retired as Chief of the Nautical Almanac Office at the US Naval Observatory in 2004. Her work included research in galaxy dynamics and dark matter and she also contributes widely to education outreach. Sethanne published a history of women in science, The Hidden Giants, in 2007. She is currently a volunteer editor for the CSWA newsletter, AASWomen.
I was born in Coronado, California in 1944 (during WWII). First Grade was in Washington State. Second Grade was in California. Third grade was in Rhode Island. I think the Fourth and Fifth Grades were in Virginia. I graduated from high school in Paris, France. My first year of college was in Munich, Germany. My father retired from the Navy when I was a senior at the University of California, Davis.
So I grew up with a global view that can be rare for people who stay in one school system K - 12. I learned to adapt to new situations early in life, which helped me later on, too.
Read more at
https://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2023/08/career-profile-peripatetic-astronomer.html
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2. A history of anti-racism in science
From: Jörg Matthias Determann [jmdetermann_at_vcu.edu]
Twentieth-century scientists were imperfect diversity advocates in the Global South.
On 10 June 2020, researchers in the United States and elsewhere joined the Strike for Black Lives, a mass walkout that sought to draw attention to systemic racism and racial inequality. This high-profile protest might have given the impression that antiracism in science is a relatively recent concern, propelled by the Black Lives Matter movement that emerged in the 2010s. However, just as feminism in academia predates the #MeToo movement, anti-racism in science has a much longer history.
Read more at
https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.adi3191
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3. Women working in Antarctica say they were left to fend for themselves against sexual harassers
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
By Nick Perry
The National Science Foundation, the federal agency that oversees the U.S. Antarctic Program, published a report in 2022 in which 59% of women said they’d experienced harassment or assault while on the ice, and 72% of women said such behavior was a problem in Antarctica.
But the problem goes beyond the harassment, The Associated Press found. In reviewing court records and internal communications, and in interviews with more than a dozen current and former employees, the AP uncovered a pattern of women who said their claims of harassment or assault were minimized by their employers, often leading to them or others being put in further danger.
Read more at
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4. Gender disparities limit chances for women PhD students training to be new inventors, says new research
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
by MIT Sloan School of Management
In [a] paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, titled "Faculty as Catalysts for Training New Inventors: Differential outcomes for Male and Female Ph.D. Students," [it was] found that Ph.D. students' advisors play a critical role in training new inventors. Faculty advisors who are themselves top inventors serve as catalysts for encouraging their advisees to become new inventors through co-patenting.
An important finding in the research was that female STEM doctoral students are less likely to become new inventors compared to their male counterparts during the years of their training.
Read more at
https://phys.org/news/2023-08-gender-disparities-limit-chances-women.html
Read the journal article at
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2200684120
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5. They Remembered the Lost Women of the Manhattan Project So That None of Us Would Forget
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
By Katie Hafner
Physicists Ruth Howes and Caroline Herzenberg’s ten-year research project ensured a place in history for the female scientists, engineers and technicians who worked on the atomic bomb.
Read more and listen to the podcast at
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6. Invisible women: Gender representation in high school science courses across Australia
From: Jeremy Bailin [jbailin_at_ua.edu]
By Kathryn Ross et al.
Abstract: The visibility of female role models in science is vital for engaging and retaining women in scientific fields. In this study, we analyse four senior secondary science courses delivered across the states and territories in Australia: Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, and Physics. We compared male and female representation within the science courses by examining the mentions of male and female scientists along with the context of their inclusions in the syllabuses. We find a clear gender bias with only one unique mention of a female scientist. We also find a clear Eurocentric focus and narrow representation of scientists. This bias will contribute to the continuing low engagement of women in scientific fields. We outline possible solutions to address this issue, including the accreditation of scientific discoveries to include female scientists and explicit discussion of structural barriers preventing the participation and progression of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
Read the journal article at
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00049441231197245
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7. 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.
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8. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
Join AAS Women List through the online portal:
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9. Access to Past Issues
https://aas.org/comms/cswa/AASWOMEN
Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.
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