Cross-post: Summary from the WiPS Networking event at LPSC 2019

Panelists at the WiPS LPSC Networking Event

The Women in Planetary Science (WiPS) event at LPSC (Lunary and Planetary Science Conference) in March commemorated the 50th LPSC by celebrating women scientists who have been in planetary science since the Apollo Era.

Read more about the event in a recent Women in Planetary Science blog post by Dr. Rajani Dhingra:

https://womeninplanetaryscience.wordpress.com/2019/05/12/summary-from-the-wips-networking-event-at-lpsc-2019/

AASWomen Newsletter for April 5, 2019

AAS Committee on the Status of Women

April 5, 2019

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

This week's issues:

1. Cross-post: Guide to Organizing Inclusive Scientific Meetings

2. Town Hall Webinar: Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics

3. Deadline Extended: NASA Planetary Science Summer Seminar

4. 10 Unusual Tips For How To Advance Women In STEM, National Academy Of Sciences

5. NASEM Report: Preventing Sexual Harassment

6. Mixed messages about women’s representation in science—and a missing piece of the picture

7. 32 Women Who’ve Changed Life As We Know It 

8. The Failure of NASA’s Spacewalk SNAFU? How Predictable it Was

9. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

10. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

11. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

Cross-post: The Women Who Contributed to Science but Were Buried in Footnotes

From the Atlantic article (Bettmann/Getty)

"In science, the question of who gets credit for important work—fraught in any field—is set down on paper, for anyone to see. Authorship, given pride of place at the top of scientific papers, can advance reputations and careers; credits buried in the rarely read acknowledgments section do not."

In the Atlantic article, The Women Who Contributed to Science but Were Buried in Footnotes, Ed Yong highlights a team of students led by Emilia Huerta-Sánchez and Rori Rohlfs who searched through decades of acknowledgements in Theoretical Population Biology and discovered that many women were not given the authorships that would be expected for today's researchers.

Read more at:

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/02/womens-history-in-science-hidden-footnotes/582472/ 

AASWomen Newsletter for January 11, 2019

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of January 11, 2019
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, Maria Patterson, and JoEllen McBride

This week's issues:

1. Examining author gender data

2. NASEM Symposium on Women in STEMM

3. Making Waves: 6 Women in Hawaii with Careers in STEM Share Their Stories

4. The Ultimate Women in Science Reading List

5. The US is much less inclusive than it was two years ago. Here's why

6. New measure of equality reveals a fuller picture of male well-being

7. Geena Davis Knows Women Are Good for Hollywood's Bottom Line. So What Gives?

8. When It Comes To Women In STEM Roles, The Results Are Golden

9. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

10. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

11. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

Does Astronomy Education Research have a glass ceiling?

Saeed Salimpour

By Saeed Salimpour^1,a and Michael Fitzgerald<sup>2

1</sup>Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia
²Edith Cowan Institute for Education Research, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Western Australia, Australia
^aCorrespondence: astrophysics_at_saeedsalimpour.com

The challenges associated with gender equity and equality have been the topic of much research over many decades. In the context of science, the issue of gender is even more pronounced, this is marked by efforts to engage more women in science, or more specifically STEM. However, the research has mostly centred around scientists and science research. This brief article highlights findings from a study which explored the issue of gender in the context of Astronomy Education Research (AER) – a rapidly growing field of research drawing in, not just astronomers, but also researchers from different fields, e.g., education, psychology, evaluation.

Michael Fitzgerald

The study used the iSTAR database (International STudies of Astronomy education Research) (istardb.org, link to summary paper). Over the years, iSTAR has grown to contain, or link to where appropriate, more than 1800 publications. These have drawn from major literature searches throughout the mainstream astronomy, astronomy education and science education journals, major conference proceedings and thesis collections. We presented the current status of iSTAR, at the recent RTSRE & iNATS conference in Hilo, Hawai’i, a recording of the talk is available here, and to see a fully referenced expanded version of this article, a pre-print of the article is available here.

Intersection of Science and Politics -- Women Running for Office (#Witches in STEM)

By Angela Speck

All elections are important, but the impending mid-terms are especially so. All over the world there have been rightward swings in governments. And these new governments potentially impact so many groups that are not in the majority: not majority ethnicity/race, not male, not heterosexual, not cisgender, and so on. The intersection of “conservative” social policies with a tendency toward rejecting science means that we (Women Scientists) are feeling beleaguered (along with many other groups).

Many people, especially those in marginalized groups, were more than a little disappointed by the results of the 2016 US general election. Immediately after the presidential inauguration there were marches across the US in support of women’s rights. A few months later another series of demonstrations took place, this time in support of science.  While women are not the only group to feel embattled by the actions of the present administration, this blog is about women. Women and science in fact. And women in science have stepped up like never before to try and take control and be a part of how this country runs.

Donna Strickland and Frances Arnold win Nobel Prizes

The winners of the Nobel Prizes were announced this week and two women, Donna Strickland and Frances Arnold, have been honored for their extraordinary contributions to the sciences.

On Tuesday, Donna Strickland became the third woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. She's the first woman to win the prize in 55 years.

Here are a select number of articles about Dr. Strickland's win:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2018/10/02/nobel-prize-physics-awarded-tools-made-light-first-woman-years-honored/?utm_term=.a38c57221bfd

http://time.com/5412840/donna-strickland-nobel-prize-physics/

AASWOMEN Newsletter for August 24, 2018

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of August 24, 2018
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, Maria Patterson, and JoEllen McBride

This week's issues:

1. Career Profile: Associate Teaching Professor

2. Our Science Heroes

3. NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing

4. AAAS Leshner Fellows Letter on AAAS Harassment Policy

5. YouTube’s Women of STEM Make Learning About Science Fun

6. Girls Deterred from Science at a Young Age But Green Girls Can Fix That

7. Science’s Bullying Problem

8. NASA Intern Loses Gig After Profanity-Laden Twitter Spat with Space Council’s Homer Hickam

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

AASWomen Newsletter for August 17, 2018

AAS Committee on the Status of Women

August 17, 2018

eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Christina Thomas, Maria Patterson, and JoEllen McBride

This week's issues:

1. Cross-post: The book that fights sexism with science            

2. Useful and Interesting Webpages 

3. Lawrence Fellowship: Applications Now Being Accepted

4. FUTURE of Physics 2018: Nominations Now Being Accepted

5. Mary G. Ross: Google Doodle honors first Native American woman engineer who helped put man on the moon 

6. The comet calculator: Nicole-Reine Lepaute 

7. Job Opportunities   

8. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

9. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

10. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

Cross-post: The book that fights sexism with science

Angela Saini
Photo: Gareth Phillips for the Observer, from the Guardian

A recent article on the Guardian by Donna Ferguson discusses the impact a recent book, Inferior: The True Power of Women and the Science that Shows It by Angela Saini, has had on the myth that there are biological differences our brains by gender that cause men or women to be better at certain things. Female scientists rallied behind this message and started a crowdfunding campaign to send a copy of the book to every mixed gender secondary school in England.

Read more at

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/aug/11/women-equal-to-men-science-fact-book-angela-saini

Hosting a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

There are many fantastic ways to raise the profile of women in STEM. One that has been in the news recently is hosting a Wikipedia edit-a-thon. The AASWomen editors were inspired last week after seeing an article about a physicist who wrote 270 Wikipedia profiles for female scientists.

Read more here:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/scientist-pens-270-wikipedia-pages-in-a-year-so-female-scientists-get-noticed_us_5b574eeee4b0b15aba92c0d5

There are a number of resources online for how to host your own edit-a-thon. One example from 500 Women Scientists can be found here:

https://www.sciencerising.org/2018/07/23/hosting-an-edit-a-thon/

A great example of a successful event at UNC can be seen here:

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/UNC/Chapel_Hill_NC

Let us know if you decide to host an edit-a-thon and we'll include it in a AASWomen's newsletter!

AASWOMEN Newsletter for July 20, 2018

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of July 20, 2018
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, Maria Patterson, and JoEllen McBride

This week's issues:

1. How to Avoid Becoming a Sexual Predator

2. How We Got from Then (1971) to Now -- The Annie Jump Cannon Award and the First Working Group on the Status of Women in Astronomy

3. IAU Survey on Closing the Gender Gap in Science

4. Maria Mitchell Women in Science Symposium Early Bird Registration Deadline Extended to August 1

5. Overlooked No More: Beatrice Tinsley, Astronomer Who Saw the Course of the Universe

6. More Than a Century Ago, Astronomer Phoebe Waterman Defied Her Doubters

7. New analysis of funding trends offers encouraging news for female investigators—with caveats

8. When Women Stopped Coding

9. Infographic: What Do You Call Your Professor?

10. Women Making Science Videos on YouTube Face Hostile Comments

11. For Scientists Running for Congress, Victory Doesn't Depend on Science

12. Job Opportunities

13. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

14. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

15. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

AASWomen Newsletter for June 29, 2018

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of June 29, 2018
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, Maria Patterson, and JoEllen McBride

This week's issues:

1. Cross-Post: 35 Years Since Sally Rode

2. UK's forgotten woman astronomer honoured

3. Committee On Space Research (COSPAR) awards male scientists

4. America's First Female Mapmaker

5. Women in Science: Portraits, Archive Material, Trails and Talks

6. 3rd Annual Women of Color STEM Entrepreneurship Conference

7. Use of Surname for males more than females may be sign of unintentional bias

8. Women Ask for Raises as Often as Men, but Are Less Likely to Get Them

9. Visibility matters: A conversation with the co-founder of 500 Queer Scientists

10. 'Robotics Engineer Barbie' aims to encourage more girls to pursue STEM careers

11. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

12. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

13. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

Women in Leadership: Power

I’ve had many bosses. Two were great, several were mediocre, and a few were simply awful. I can count one sexual harasser, one bully, and at least one liar. One taught me the difference between leadership and management. None taught me about power. So when I attended the “Women in Business – Transitioning to Leadership” workshop at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School in May, I wasn’t expecting my ideas about power to change. When Dr. Mabel Miguel, Professor of Organizational Behavior at UNC and the facilitator of our Tuesday afternoon session asked us if we thought power was good or bad, the thing that came to mind was the old quote from Lord Acton, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." I thought power was bad. Over the course of the next four hours, Dr. Miguel completely changed my mind. Not only is power not bad (what you do with it can be bad), but for me, “Power is good” became the single most important take-away of the workshop. Here are the objectives of the session:

• Help you understand power, politics, and influence in leadership and their role in organizations.

• Help you identify your power attitudes and sources.

• Discuss best approaches to influencing others and increase your ability to do so.

• Enable you to transfer the skills to your current job.

In our optional evening “after-sessions,” which took place in the bar or around the fire pit, members of my class agreed that the last bullet was an essential component of a successful session. We were here to learn, but this workshop was not just an academic exercise. We were here to become better managers and leaders. So what did the session offer me that was so personally “powerful?”

Women in Leadership: Networks

 As you make the transition from scientist to manager, you may realize that the technical and mathematical skills that got you where you are won’t help as much as you advance. Although (when mixed with a bit of intuition and common sense) they may be sufficient at lower levels, like department chair, group lead, or principal investigator, these abilities alone will not be enough as you move to higher levels. Even though your undergrad and graduate curricula were packed full of requirements, you may reach a point when you lament that you never took a management course. Your success will depend less and less on the skills that made you a successful scientist and more and more on your human competencies. In a community that is dominated by introverts, this is a particularly troubling realization, and an individual with even mild extroverted tendencies has a natural advantage. There is a joke I heard while I was working in the Astronomy Division at NSF. Question: How do you tell if someone is an extrovert? Answer: When they pass you in the hall, they look at your shoes. It is sort of funny only because it is so true. I worked on the Math and Physical Sciences floor – the directorate that includes Math, Physics, Chemistry, Materials, and Astronomy. I can’t tell you the number of times I passed someone in the hall, and they looked down. I found I had to really focus on keeping eye contact and saying something simple like, “Good morning.” So imagine how an individual in this community of introverts feels when they learn that their career advancement now depends on the one thing they were never good at (and never had to be) - their ability to develop effective working relationships with key individuals.

AASWOMEN Newsletter for March 11, 2016

AAS Committee on the Status of Women

Issue of March 11, 2016

eds: Daryl Haggard, Nicolle Zellner, Elysse Voyer, & Heather Flewelling

This week's issues:

1. Transitioning as a Junior Astronomer 

2. Postdoctoral Fellow Highlight: Dr. Lia Corrales      

3. March is Women’s History Month 

4. The costs of inequality: For women, progress until they get near power

5. 22 women of science who changed the world 

6. APS Addresses Sexual Harassment Scandals 

7. How to Recruit and Retain Underrepresented Minorities        

8.  'Critical shortage' of women in science jobs, report finds      

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

My response to ‘Bothered’ from the Science Magazine Career Advice Section

On June 1st, a postdoctoral fellow wrote in to Science Magazine’s Career Advice Editor to ask for help with an issue she is having in her lab. Her advisor has been looking down her shirt when she meets with him in his office, and she was upset by the behavior and wanted advice on what to do. The advice she received from ‘Ask Alice’ was upsetting to many, and resulted in the post being removed within a couple of hours of being posted and a fury of responses emailed to the editor (including one from myself), as well as on twitter and Facebook, and even in the national media.  The post was removed (I still have attached the archived version here), and Science posted an apology instead.

Finding Funding in Unexpected Places

Today’s guest blogger is Sabrina Stierwalt. Sabrina is currently a L’Oreal For Women in Science Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Virginia. Her research uses multiwavelength observations of nearby galaxy mergers to understand the cosmological assembly history of galaxies. Her most current work focuses on low metallicity, merger-driven star formation and the subsequent enrichment of the ISM in interacting dwarf galaxies.

Astronomy research funding through the usual NSF and NASA channels is shrinking to the point that some agencies have considered capping the number of proposals a scientist can submit. Other programs, like NASA’s 2015 Astrophysics Theory program, are being cut altogether. As a predominantly longer wavelength astronomer, I also don’t typically benefit from funds allocated with my telescope time since I rely on ground-based radio facilities as my workhorses.

So as a postdoc on a (never ending?) quest to fund my research in the financial landscape before me, one thing became clear. It was time to get creative. That’s how I found the L’Oréal USA For Women in Science program. 

Someone in biology or chemistry, however, would not likely consider this move creative. L’Oréal’s FWIS program is very well known and highly respected in many STEM fields. The US branch of the FWIS program has awarded $2.5 million to over 55 women since the grant program began in 2003. The larger, global L’Oréal UNESCO For Women in Science International Fellowship program began in 1998 and has supported more than 2,000 scientists in over 100 countries. AAAS, an organization more astronomers are likely familiar with, manages the peer review and selection process and administers the grants. Fellows are chosen for “their exceptional academic records and intellectual merit, clearly articulated research proposals with the potential for scientific advancement and … their commitment to supporting other women and girls in science.”

AASWOMEN Newsletter for January 30, 2015

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of January 30, 2015
eds: Daryl Haggard, Nicolle Zellner, Meredith Hughes, & Elysse Voyer

This week's issues:

1. Lessons from Women's Safety Initiatives in South Asia  
2. Negotiating a Single Tenure Track Offer 
3. AAS Council Elections
4. L’Oréal USA for Women in Science Fellowship Program 
5. Science Says Teams Work Better When They’re Mostly Women  
6. Super-Gifted Boys Choose Higher-Powered, Higher-Paying Careers Than Female Peers      
7. 100% of the women of color interviewed in STEM study experienced gender bias
8. Slowing down in academia: Is it worth the risk? I say yes.
9. Reasons You were not Promoted That are Totally Unrelated to Gender
10. Where are the women at Davos?
11. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
12. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
13. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

AASWOMEN Newsletter for November 14, 2014

AAS Committee on the Status of Women

Issue of November 14, 2014

eds: Daryl Haggard, Nicolle Zellner, Meredith Hughes, & Elysse Voyer

This week's issues:

1. Queer Eye for the Straight Marriage  

2. Sappho and the Origins of Ancient Greek Astronomy 

3. The Best Part of My Week   

4. Lead ESA Scientist Wears Shirt Covered in Gratuitous Sexy Chicks For Comet Landing Livestream  

5. Why 'Interstellar' Is Great for Women in STEM

6. Rocket Science: Four NASA moms offer their 7 best insights on getting more girls into STEM  

7. For America's Future, Engineering Needs to Diversify

8. CERN Council selects next Director-General

9. Boys Who Bully More Likely to Sexually Harass 2 Years Later

10. Job Opportunities

11. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

12. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

13. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter