Cross-post: Women in Planetary Science, Summary of DPS 2018 Planetary Allyship Meeting

The Women in Planetary Science blog this week featured a summary of last fall's Planetary Allyship Meeting at the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) conference. The group held their fourth annual DPS event where they discussed "how people from non-marginalized groups can support equity in the scientific community". In the blog entry, the event organizers summarized the discussion and provided action items for those interested in working toward change.

Read more at:

https://womeninplanetaryscience.wordpress.com/2019/01/20/summary-of-dps-2018-planetary-allyship-meeting/

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 February 02, 2018

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of February 02, 2018
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, and Maria Patterson

This week's issues:

1. APS Materials on Attracting and Retaining Women and Minorities

2. Ewine van Dishoeck Receives James Craig Watson Medal

3. When More Women Join the Workforce, Wages Rise - Including for Men

4. Women Once Ruled the Computer World. When Did Silicon Valley Become Brotopia?

5. Want to Be an Ally to Women at Work? Here Are Five Things Men in Tech Have Been Doing

6. Job Opportunities

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

Cross Posts: On the US Election: Inclusion, Allyship, & Solidarity in Astronomy & Planetary Science

Several statements, in addition to two (Nov. 9th and Nov. 14th) posted via the Women in Astronomy blog, have been posted by groups affiliated with the American Astronomical Society with regards to the recent US Presidential election and the need for inclusion, allyship, and the safe guarding of our colleagues and friends. Three of those pieces are attached (in brief forms with links to their fuller versions) here: The November 9th blog from the Astronomy in Color Blog, the November 18th post from AAS President Christine Jones on behalf of the AAS Council, and the November 20th post on the Women in Planetary Science Blog from the Men's Auxiliary Group who recently met at the Division for Planetary Sciences Conference.

The Price of Stories

Do you believe that racial discrimination and harassment occur in your department? Do you believe that sexual harassment has impacted the careers of its victims? Do you believe the climate in your department is safe for our LGBTQIA colleagues and students?

Your belief is irrelevant. We have facts at our disposal. Yet we extort a high price from those who experience harassment and assault in our community. 

AASWOMEN Newsletter for April 15, 2016

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of April 15, 2016
eds: Daryl Haggard, Nicolle Zellner, Elysse Voyer, & Heather Flewelling

This week's issues:

1. Sexual Harassment – Changing the System I

2. AWIS Webinar Series on Sexual Harrassment

3. APS Releases Report on LGBT Climate in Physics

4. Allies and Microaggressions

5. Seven Graphs to Make You Gasp

6. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter

7. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter

8. Access to Past Issues

In-Reach/Outreach

Today's guest blogger is Terri Brandt. Terri is a high energy astrophysicist working at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Studying cosmic rays and gamma-rays has taken her from Ohio to France to the ends of the Earth (Antarctica!). She helps organize diversity events at Goddard and has filled spare time with, among other things, ultimate frisbee, including cofounding one of The Ohio State teams.

Those times you need an ear, or a shoulder.

We’ve all had them.

When support, a space to share, to rail at life’s injustices and be

Heard

are as necessary as air.

People in underrepresented groups, facing higher frequencies of injustice, often need these spaces more often or more profoundly than members of majority groups. Be it outright *ism or the accumulation of microaggressions, having such spaces can help underrepresented groups’ members remember why they began this journey, can help them renew their commitment to it or to celebrate the beginning of a new journey.

To do this, these spaces must necessarily be safe, as defined by the people needing them. For people of color, this may mean spaces where there are no “white” people. For women, this may mean spaces with no people identifying as male.

Exclusion from a safe space is typically not a reflection on a given person. Rather, it is a reflection of the systemic over- and undervaluing of individuals based on things other than their actual performance in equitable assessments.

These safe spaces allow discussion, healing, and renewal. This “inreach” to members of underrepresented groups can be absolutely critical to the success of members of these groups.

At the same time, we also need outreach.

We need spaces where people who genuinely want to be allies, who want to listen and learn and use their privilege (however small it may seem) for the good of others, to be able to interact with members of underrepresented groups who are ready to share their stories, who are ready to point potential allies to resources and engage with their respectful questions about points not yet fully grasped. Who can help enunciate the common needs of the underrepresented group. Who can help allies become advocates.

These well educated advocates can create more allies and advocates, sharing the burden and creating an exponential growth of people who can partner with members of underrepresented groups to more rapidly and effectively change the system from within, to create a culture and a system that better enables everyone to realize their full potential.

So if you are a member of an underrepresented group, I invite you to create or sustain spaces of inreach, to strengthen your support networks (whatever they may be) so that you are better able to survive the inevitable injustices inherent to our systems and enacted by individuals in those systems. Because despite our actions,

We Need You.

And when you are able and ready, please engage in outreach, whether in person or online. Help others to help you and other members of your group.

To members of well represented groups, I invite you to listen, to use resources available to educate yourself. To reflect deeply and compassionately on the experiences of underrepresented group members, acknowledging that the act of sharing is a gift, no matter how painful the content.

Reach out to others, to let them know that you want to engage with them on ways to stop injustices when they are ready. Respect when individuals are not yet ready. Leave the door open for them and keep looking for those who are ready. Because despite our actions,

We Need You. 

And when you are able and ready, please step up and act. Advocate! Whether online or in person, use the power of your privilege to raise up voices that systematically go unheard, to minimize bias, unconscious or otherwise, to create a more just world.

For only in fully realizing all peoples’ potentials will we truly be doing the best science possible. 

Diversity Checklist

As we strive to make astronomy a true meritocracy, one challenge is to convince those with power that we still have work to do. If we want to build our community into one that looks more like America, one possible strategy is to convert those with privilege into allies for the cause. But what does one do to convince a potential ally to stop simply lounging on the sidelines? One possible tactic is to provide a budding supporter with some tools to help him/her get up and get in the game.

 

An example of a helpful tool is the Diversity Checklist. I first saw a version of the list in a PowerPoint presentation given by my NSF colleague, Lynnette Marsden, a program officer from the Division of Materials Research. Lynnette and I served together on the NSF Math and Physical Sciences Broadening Participation Working Group.

 

This list is geared specifically toward women, but it could be adopted easily to apply to any other underrepresented group. Here’s the version I now use in my Unconscious Bias talks. I pared the basic list down to fit smugly on a single PowerPoint slide, but for this post, I’ve added some hopefully-helpful notes under each item.

 

1. Do I encourage women to follow their interests in terms of education and career path?

 

Some young women, especially those in underrepresented minority communities, are still channeled by teachers, guidance counselors, and parents on to career tracks that are traditionally female – nurse instead of doctor, teacher instead of professor, or social worker instead of psychiatrist. Many of their role models may also be in these traditional positions. An ally can help counterbalance these powerful social stereotypes by introducing young women to the full spectrum of career choices.

 

2. Do I mentor junior women?

 

A 2014 study revealed that senior male professors in biology, especially those who have prestigious awards or are members of the National Academies, train a significantly smaller percentage of female graduate students and postdocs than their female or junior colleagues. These results sent CSWA’s Ed Bertschinger back to search his own professional history. He blogged about the results in Elite Male Faculty Employ Fewer Women.

　

3. Do I seek advice from senior women?

 

This item on the check list can be more challenging because of the shortage of senior women in physics and astronomy. Why bother to take the extra time to seek out senior women when it is so much easier to find a variety of senior men to talk to, all with their own advice to share? Checking this item off the list can often take a conscious effort, but it is such an important component of becoming a true ally.

 

4. Do I ensure I am fairly assessing all applicants for new positions, promotions, etc.?

 

This is where we all need to be aware of our own unconscious biases. It is so easy to let biases sneak in to an assessment of resumes, job credentials, or proposals. Biases affect fellowship, hiring, and award selection. Promotions and careers can be negatively impacted. Always second guess yourself and your colleagues. Make sure that your decisions are grounded solidly in the data available. For more on unconscious bias, review the eye-opening studies from sociology.

 

5. Do I include women in lunches, gatherings, and technical discussions?

 

Some potential allies might resist this suggestion because they fear that their invitation might be misinterpreted – a date rather than a working lunch, a rendezvous rather than a business meeting, an intimate chat rather than a technical discussion. There are easy ways to eliminate these potential misunderstandings. Send group invitations and always act professionally toward your colleagues. For more advice, check Diversity 101: Nine Simple Steps to a More Diverse Astronomical Community.

 

6. Do I listen to women’s opinions in meetings and do I show support for their ideas?

 

Almost every woman I know has been in this situation: she sitting in a meeting and makes what she thinks is a great suggestion; she’s ignored. Ten minutes later, a guy makes a similar suggestion and everyone thinks it's just the greatest idea. What’s going on? If you find that you are the one doing the ignoring, train yourself to focus when a woman speaks. This take awareness and effort. If you notice others doing this, find a way to redirect attention back to the woman who made the original suggestion. Check out ADVICE: Being Ignored in a Meeting for more suggestions.

 

7. Do I help ensure that our work space and rules accommodate women’s needs?

 

The easiest way to check on this is to ask local women. This part should be obvious, but I’ll state it explicitly anyway – ask in a respectful and professional manner.

 

8. Do I nominate women for awards/recognitions?

 

For a very long time, I know that the answer to this question was no, at least for the AAS Russell and Heinemann Prizes, the awards for senior and mid-career astronomers. I know because for years (and years) no women won these prestigious awards! So I put together a clandestine group of astronomers that I affectionately refer to as the Prize Patrol. We started nominating women for these top awards. We can’t claim every success, but you can take a look at the recent results and judge for yourself. This is just one example of how a small deliberate effort can reap big rewards.

 

9. Do I suggest women as invited speakers, co-organizers, etc.?

 

This is another case where unconscious bias can affect your results. Take a look at CSWA’s data on Percentages of Conference Invited Speakers Who Are Women. Here is some blog advice from an anonymous colleague: (a) if the first 5 names you come up with happen to be male, challenge yourself to write down 5 female names; (b) make sure the final list of invited speakers is representative of the community; and (c) don’t expect only the female colleagues on the committee to suggest female names.

 

10. Do I congratulate women on their successes?

 

This one is easy – just do it!

 

A potential ally might look at this list and check off numbers 1 and 2, but then snag on 3. Another might be proud to admit that he/she and done at least half of these things – once. But the trick to becoming a successful ally is to all these things all the time. When this check list morphs from a crutch, reminding one to do the right thing, to a routine, where these activities become second nature, then an ally has truly been born.

AASWOMEN Newsletter for May 29, 2015

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of May 29, 2015
eds: Daryl Haggard, Nicolle Zellner, Meredith Hughes, & Elysse Voyer

This week's issues:

1. Leadership, Role Models . . . and Captain Kathryn Janeway(?)
2. Homework for Those Seeking to be Allies
3. Science still seen as male profession, according to international study of gender bias
4. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
5. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
6. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

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Homework for Those Seeking to be Allies

The below by Dr. Sarah Ballard is cross-posted (with permission) from John Johnson's blog, Mahalo.ne.Trash.  Dr. Ballard is a Carl Sagan postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington, and soon-to-be Torres Fellow at MIT.

The writer and activist Janet Mock describes the idea of an “ally” as more of an action, and less of an identity. “Ally” is something that we actively do, not something that we can ever passively be. I found this conception very helpful to hear because it posits “ally” within the context of hard work. Being an ally is hard work. It is similar to my other kinds of work (in astronomy and elsewhere) in that (1) improvement is not only facilitated by criticism from respected peers and colleagues, it relies upon this criticism, and (2) it’s characterized less by large leaps and bounds, and much more by constant and small day-to-day efforts.

I was wrong and I am sorry

I was wrong.

I made a mistake.

I messed up.

Why are these phrases so hard for us to say?

I used to think that admitting any of the above was the worst thing I could possibly do.  It triggered all sorts of shame, fear, and impostor feelings.  If I didn't do everything perfectly -- the first time -- there was something wrong with me.  If people knew there was something wrong with me, then they would know I was a fake and didn't deserve to be here.  So when someone pointed out to me that I had done something wrong, my first reaction was to be defensive, make justifications, deny the mistake or wrong-doing.  I acted this way because of some warped belief that it would make me look better and feel better about the situation.  

It did neither.

On Being a Transgender Astronomer

Today's guest post is by Jessica Mink, a positional astronomer and software developer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, who has written the commonly used software packages WCSTools and RVSAO and worked on a variety of astronomical projects over 40 years. Much of her story is told in this interview with the American Astronomical Society's Working Group on LGBTIQ Equality (WGLE). 

While I consider myself to be a woman astronomer, I have not always been one. Since I made much of my reputation with a different gender expression and remain in the field, I have to accept the fact that I am also a transgender astronomer, and as a representative of that small group, serve as an ambassador to the rest of the astronomical world.

While gradually (over 40 years!) transitioning from male to female, I have thought a lot about gender and its various facets, but when I volunteered to write a blog entry representing my gender minority for the Women in Astronomy blog, I realized that I hadn't been very systematic about it. It is likely that most readers don't have any trans* friends (that they know about), but this far into the 21st century, most thinking people are aware of our existence and might even know of one of us.