Issue of April 26, 2024
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:
1. Cross-post: New study highlights what women in STEM want
2. AAS Members Elected as 2023 AAAS Fellows
3. Nominations Are Now Open for 2025 AAS Prizes
4. IAU Women in Astronomy Report
5. How can physics become more diverse?
6. Emmy Noether, Greatest Female Mathematician
7. A Simple Act of Defiance Can Improve Science for Women
8. Women in science during Arab American month
9. National Science Day 2024: 13 Indian Female Scientists
10. Where Are China’s Women in STEM?
11. Women of color still lag behind in STEM jobs, despite efforts to change
12. Meet Katya Echazarreta, the first Mexican-born woman to travel to space
13. NASA Participates in NCAA Women’s Championship Game
14. Job Opportunities
15. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
16. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
17. Access to Past Issues
An online version of this newsletter will be available at http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/ at 3:00 PM ET every Friday.
A new survey of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields finds that despite the fact that nearly 2 in 3 millennial, Gen X and Baby Boomer women working in STEM said they have seen gender equality improve during their careers, a number of long-standing challenges persist for most.
Among them: unconscious bias, workplace culture, and leadership and pay gaps.
Read more at
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2024/04/cross-post-new-study-highlights-what.html
A number of women in astronomy have been elected as 2023 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellows, including Lori E. Allen, Anneila I. Sargent, and AASWomen's own Sethanne Howard.
Read more at
https://aas.org/posts/news/2024/04/aas-members-elected-2023-aaas-fellows
See the full list of 2023 AAAS Fellows at
https://www.aaas.org/fellows/2023-fellows
Nominations for AAS prizes are now being accepted! We encourage members to nominate themselves and their colleagues for prizes that best fit their career stage and accomplishments. The prizes that the Society awards to its members are among the most visible and effective ways to recognize our members’ contributions and achievements, as well as contribute to their future success. Nominations are due 30 June.
Read more at
https://aas.org/posts/news/2024/04/nominations-are-now-open-2025-aas-prizes
By Mamta Pommier
As we approach the end of our Triennial term, the Women in Astronomy Working Group (WiA WG) is pleased to share the Triennial report - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BST22vQOAfif4xwjK_P6OzkEx4tnrblM/view detailing the overall achievements over the past three years. It has been an interesting experience collaborating with each of you and sharing the progress we've made together.
In accordance with guidance received from the IAU Membership Coordination team, we are initiating the process to identify potential new Chair and Co-chair for the WiA WG from the IAU members. We are also looking for 3 new Organizing Committee members to join the team. This serves to provide opportunities for others to contribute their expertise and perspective. As outlined in the guidelines provided by the IAU, it is customary for Chairs and Co-chairs of Functional Working Groups to rotate off after the triennium. For your reference, please refer to the guidelines and exceptions for Working Groups here- https://www.iau.org/static/science/scientific_bodies/working_groups/iau-working-groups-rules.pdf
Further for information, the current Chair can continue in their role, upon elections and approval by the EC. The election process for new Chair and Co-Chair positions will be self-run by the WiA WG.
We invite all the members of the WG to express your interest or nominate a colleague for the positions of Chair, Co-chair, or organizing committee member via the Google Form below.
https://forms.gle/yUJUSouxwAjYquXSA
Deadline to submit your response: 10th May, 2024!
By University of Pittsburgh
Physics has long suffered from the perception that the most cutting-edge work is done by lone geniuses, usually white men.
It’s a bias that’s seeped into how instructors interact with their students, and even into how students think about themselves. Prior research has shown that female students who get A’s in introductory physics think they’re as good at physics as male students who get C’s.
“If we really want to actually give every student the opportunity to do well, then we need to think very carefully about our role in either perpetuating the culture or changing the culture,” says Chandralekha Singh, a professor in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh who directs the Discipline-based Science Education Research Center. “Physicists, and especially those in positions of power, have a major role to play in improving the physics culture.”
Singh’s paper in Nature Physics pulls together research from 120 physics studies diagnosing the problem and offering potential solutions.
Read more at
https://www.futurity.org/physics-gender-diversity-3208452/
Read the journal article at
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-024-02391-6
By Barbara Pfeffer Billauer
Among the most creative and original mathematical thinkers – explanations of her work are virtually incomprehensible to us mortals, who communicate in words rather than symbols – Amalie “Emmy” Noether’s name is associated with countless theorems, mathematical constructs, and key advances in abstract algebra, many of which are essential to modern physics.
Read more at
By Toby Kiers
They don’t tell you beforehand that it will be a choice between having a career in science or starting a family. But that’s the message I heard loud and clear 17 years ago, in my first job after completing my Ph.D. in evolutionary biology. During a routine departmental meeting, a senior academic announced that pregnant women were a financial drain on the department. I was sitting visibly pregnant in the front row. No one said anything.
I took a leave of absence when that child, my daughter, was born. Two years later, I had a son. That second pregnancy was a surprise, and I worried that taking another leave would sink my career. So I pressed on. When my son was barely 3 weeks old, I flew nine hours to a conference with him strapped to my chest. Before delivering my talk, I made a lame joke that the audience should forgive any “brain fog.” Afterward, an older woman pulled me aside and told me that being self-deprecating in public was a disservice to women scientists.
It felt like an impossible choice: to be a bad scientist or a bad mother.
Read more at
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/26/opinion/women-science-motherhood.html
April is Arab American month, declared by President Biden iin 2021
Science, technology, and innovation continue to radically and rapidly transform how people live, socialize, pay their bills, order food, study, and work. For women and girls across the world, these changes have brought new freedoms, new forms of access to information, and new opportunities for creativity, along with new risks to their safety, representation, and share of decent employment.
Read more at
National Science Day 2024 is a time to celebrate the remarkable contributions of Indian female scientists. These women have made significant strides in various fields, from space exploration to medical research, and their achievements continue to inspire future generations.
Read more at
By Yang Ke
Over the past decade or so, the gender ratio of students enrolled at universities in China has skewed increasingly toward women. However, female students are concentrated in fields such as humanities and the social sciences, a fact that has led to their continued underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM, professions.
Read more at
https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1015005
On a recent Spring weekend 126 high school students from around the country gathered at the first National STEM Festival in Washington, D.C. They are winners of a science challenge organized by EXPLR, an organization that produces and distributes educational materials, including videos and curriculum, for high school students in the U.S.
The winners were here to showcase their projects in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to government and industry leaders. There were students like Treyonna Sullivan. She's 17 and a senior at Renaissance High School for Musical Theater in the Arts in the South Bronx, New York.
Read more at
By Elizabeth Gamillo
Katya Echazarreta made history June 4, 2022, when she traveled to space aboard Blue Origin’s NS-21 flight as one of Space for Humanity’s citizen astronauts. Space for Humanity, an organization with a goal of making space accessible for all, has a Citizen Spaceflight Program that allows anyone to experience looking at Earth from above and experience the ‘Overview effect’. Echazarreta, was one of the first picked for this role.
Echazarreta, an electrical engineer, has worked on five NASA missions, including the Europa Clipper and the Mars 2020 Rover. More recently, she has focused on her foundation called Fundación Espacial Katya Echazarreta. An organization that makes space accessible to young kids, teens, women, and other scientists and engineers in Mexico. Fundación Espacial, although started in Mexico, is now expanding to accept applications from all over the world.
Astronomy interviewed Echazarreta via video about her current projects, hobbies, and journey to where she is now.
Read more at
By NASA
Just before tipoff at the live national broadcast of the NCAA Women’s Final Four Championship Game on April 7, 31 women scientists, engineers, and leaders from NASA stood at center court inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in downtown Cleveland to hold a large American flag during the opening ceremony.
Read more and see pictures at
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
- Lecturer in Astronomy, Towson University, Towson MD
https://aas.org/jobregister/ad/4a9e8398
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