CSWA Town Hall in Indianapolis

CSWA is hosting a Town Hall at the Indianapolis AAS meeting. Please join us!

Title: Unconscious Bias, Stereotype Threat, and Impostor Syndrome
Date: Tuesday, June 4
Time: 12:45 - 1:45 pm
Place: Wabash Ballroom 3 (Indiana Convention Center)

Abstract: Women and other underrepresented groups in astronomy can face a powerful combination of hidden obstacles. With unconscious bias, men and women both unconsciously devalue the contributions of women. This can have a detrimental effect on grant proposals, job applications, and performance reviews. Stereotype threat is the anxiety women face in a situation where they have the potential to confirm a negative stereotype about women as a group. This anxiety alone can result in documented cases of lower scores on standardized math tests. Highly competent women may also face impostor syndrome where they find it impossible to believe in their own competence. They live with a fear of being discovered. The CSWA Town Hall at the Indianapolis AAS meeting will discuss these issues in the context of the AAUW report entitled, “Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.” The Town Hall will include at least 30 minutes for discussion and answering questions from the audience.

Women in Science: Challenges and Opportunities

AASWomen mentioned a thoughtful, short (< 5 minute) video in this Friday's newsletter. It contains a few nuggets of wisdom I wanted to highlight, to help kick off the week on the right foot.

Impostor Syndrome

Guest-post by John Johnson, professor of Astronomy in the Caltech Department of Astrophysics. His research is on the detection and characterization of exoplanets. This post is a re-post from his blog. Thank you John for being willing to share this with our community. 

I remember waking up in a cold sweat one night in early 2010, about six months after I joined the faculty at Caltech. I woke up to the terrifying realization that I didn't have a contingency plan for my family for when I would inevitably be either let go or denied tenure. Erin woke up wondering what was wrong with me and I told her that I was sorry, but it was only a matter of time before my colleagues discovered how little I know about astronomy. They were going to discover that they made a mistake in hiring me as a professor.

I remember this event vividly, and I can even recall the feeling that I was thinking critically and purely objectively. It's really amazing that I made this self-evaluation despite my achievements, my publication record, the job offers I had the year before, and the praise that I've received from my community. None of this mattered to me because I had managed to either fool everyone, or I simply worked much harder than my intrinsically talented peers. There were smart people (others), and people (like me) who had to work twice as hard to break even.

Since that time I have received counseling and treatment for acute anxiety, as I have written about previously. I now recognize that I was also suffering from something called the Impostor Syndrome. Many people, including myself, have heard about impostor syndrome, but few understand the symptoms. Further, when suffering from the syndrome, one has a tendency to feel that they alone are judging themselves objectively while everyone else is fooled by a partial picture of reality. While others might suffer while actually being good at their jobs, I'm the true exception. I know I'm not good enough while others are. 

How to Succeed

Imposter syndrome can manifest itself in many different ways. My particular brand is that whenever I achieve something or win something or what-have-you, I immediately think, "if they're giving this to me, they must be giving them out like candy." Or I see ways to denigrate my accomplishment, like this must be a mistake, or they've lowered their standards, or this particular job/fellowship/award must not be so prestigious after all.
Which is why although I've finally scored a permanent position despite a bad job market, and done so while raising two young children, I feel like it's all been a colossal fluke. And yet, I know if a younger version of myself saw me now, I would be desperate for any and all advice on how I managed to be so successful.
With that in mind, I offer the following advice for those of you on the job market these days on the secrets of my success.
0) Are you sure you want a faculty position?
This may sound a bit counter-intuitive, but you should really seriously consider other career options. Given the realities of today's job market, chances are you may end up leaving academia in the end. So think about what you might do if you were to leave the academic track. Maybe even go so far as to apply for a few jobs. Who knows, maybe you'll realize you'll be far happier doing something other than astronomy. If not, at least you'll realize what other options are open to you, and you'll approach the job search with more confidence and less desperation.
1) Persistence, persistence, persistence.
I can't stress this one enough. Keep applying for jobs. I know that the ever-growing pile of rejection letters can be disheartening, but at some level you need to develop a bit of a thick skin. The job market is so tough that any place with an open faculty position has to turn away many extremely qualified candidates. Just because you got turned down doesn't necessarily mean you're not good enough. Sometimes I think that the only reason there are fewer women in the field is because men don't mind banging their heads against the wall as much as women do.
2) Work hard

Rocky: You see, flying takes three things: Hard work, perseverance and... hard work.
Fowler: You said "hard work" twice.
Rocky: That's because it takes twice as much work as perseverance.
I won't lie: it's not going to be easy. It's going to take a lot of hard work. Do the best research you can, publish often, go to conferences, write proposals, etc. And yes, it can be extremely hard to be motivated to work while that pile of rejection letters keeps growing, but without an excellent record of research, no one will want to hire you.
3) Work your network
I always used to think that I hated networking. To me, networking sounded like a cynically working a room to meet all the most prestigious contacts and schmooze your way to the top. I always much preferred hanging with friends at conferences, sometimes to talk about science, but more often to enjoy a meal together or carry on lively conversation. But as it turned out, we were all moving up the academic ladder together, perhaps at different rates, but upwardly anyway. One day I realized that I actually did have friends in high places, and they were those friends that I had socialized with over the years. And because they were friends and collaborators, they wanted to see me succeed, too. So don't burn any bridges, because when it comes down to hiring someone, the person of whom you have fond memories of hanging out at conferences is going to win over the person who was a jerk to you during their talk.
4) Marry well
By this, I don't mean marry someone who is independently wealthy, although that would be nice. What I mean is having a supportive spouse. My husband takes a fully equal share in parenting our children, does most of the housework, and was willing to pick up and move across the country not once, but twice. Without his continual support on the home front, not to mention the huge amount of moral support he's provided me over the years, I definitely would not have gotten where I am today.
5) Any time is a good a time as any other to start a family.
There will never be a perfect time to start having kids if you pursue an academic career. So, you could either say, "all times are equally bad," or "all times are equally good." Why not look at the bright side? I had my kids in grad school, but very few of us are ready to have them at that point, either because we haven't found the right partner yet, or aren't ready financially, or both. But if you wait until after you have tenure, you might no longer have the energy or fertility to have kids, or you might never get that far and have ended up waiting in vain. In recognition that having children can be a significant barrier to the advancement of women in astronomy, there's a growing list of parental leave policies at various institutions and a petition for postdoc family leave policies.

Impostors Welcome

My title is one of the slogans proposed to increase awareness of Impostor Syndrome by a group of faculty, staff, postdocs, and graduate students who participated in a facilitated conversation about this subject in my department. Impostor Syndrome is the feeling of not deserving to be in the position you are, and of being afraid that advisors, instructors, or peers will come to realize that you are not as capable as you may seem. The effect can be harmful when it selectively reinforces negative messages and causes people to try less hard because they are convinced they are incompetent when they are not. Conversely, the ability to identify and counter these feelings with positive reinforcement and determination can be very helpful in increasing ability through effort and practice.

I experienced Impostor Syndrome vividly when I started teaching as a faculty member at the very university that rejected me for undergraduate admission. How could I ever hope to teach such brilliant students? Although no one had told me about the syndrome, I knew instinctively that I just had to persevere through my fears. Experience and hard work came to my aid. The lesson? Persistence matters.

When postdoc Kathy Cooksey proposed leading a discussion of Impostor Syndrome in my department, I was delighted that others would learn and share from our collective experience. We also benefitted from an informal survey of graduate students conducted by Stanford Professor Margot Gerritsen. (See her presentation at a career development workshop for graduate students and postdocs in the geosciences.) The survey was not officially endorsed by Stanford nor were the survey questions vetted by experts. Nevertheless, its results ring true and point out a concern for gender equity: women appear to experience Impostor Syndrome more than men. 43% of males surveyed and 62% of females surveyed "often or always" think "I'm afraid to be found out" while 30% of males and 15% of females never or rarely felt that. Responses to these feelings also show gender differences: 52% of males who admitted such feelings felt that their performance was negatively affected compared with 87% of females; 27% of males with such feelings reacted positively ("work harder") while only 7% of females did. Even though the statistical significance of these differences cannot be established, the results are concerning.

It's important for educators to be aware of Impostor Syndrome as well as preventative and palliative measures. It's endemic at my university and maybe at yours. We should educate students that they're not alone in having these feelings and that there are helpful responses. As Kathy suggests, having a malleable rather than a fixed mindset is helpful. Successful people everywhere learn that failure is the first step towards mastery.

Eleanor Roosevelt said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." We must not allow ourselves to retain feelings of inferiority. Had I succumbed to that response 30 years ago, I would not be writing here today.

Work-Life Balance: Theory and Practice

Last spring I started a monthly "Diversity and Inclusion" luncheon in my department to which graduate students, postdocs, staff, and faculty are invited. Typically about 20 people attend. Each time one or two members facilitate discussion around a topic of broad interest. This week the topic was work-life balance and the interest was high. I had encouraged participants to read the Report on Work-Life Balance in Astronomy 2009 based on the survey and workshop organized by Sarah Bridle (see the November 24 blog entry by Laura Trouille). The staff facilitators also presented statistics from US reports and from my own university's faculty and staff quality of life surveys. Not surprisingly, faculty report stress associated with the workload and with the difficulty of integrating work and life. These stresses are generally higher for untenured faculty than for tenured faculty, and for women faculty than for men.

We know that many talented students choose not to pursue academic careers because of the difficulties -- both real and perceived -- of balancing work and family. For example, at this week's luncheon a senior female faculty member reported that one of her male graduate students had told her he didn't want to work as hard as she did and so would avoid a faculty career. A junior male faculty member with a baby said he wished he had a male senior faculty role model. After some discussion, we realized collectively that work-life balance is made scarier for young people when it is ignored by their senior colleagues. We would encourage more young people -- men and women both -- to consider academic careers if we support and model balanced lives.

Who, me? Model a balanced life? For many of us, this generates an experience of Impostor Syndrome! My typical workweek is 55-60 hours (including a couple of hours/night at home), and my frequent travel can be hard on loved ones. It's a challenge sometimes to put work away in order to focus full attention on the people we love.

Still, I leave work early when needed to pick up my child and I ensure that staff and faculty know it's expected they will do likewise; faculty members share experiences of child-raising and we strive to help new faculty with child care (yes, we have an on-campus day care center, with far too few spaces); we have parental leaves and tenure clock-stopping for childbirth; and we try to promote a family-friendly atmosphere by, for example, welcoming parents to bring their children to some events and providing childcare or play space when needed.

There are some advantages for a parent who is also a faculty member. Taking a teenager overnight to an astronomical observatory is a wonderful experience for both. Having the flexibility to schedule time at the office around family needs is wonderful, and the university is a fun place for students of all ages to explore. The pay and benefits are good; while PhDs may start out earning more in some industries, there are excellent opportunities for advancement and raises (admittedly, these may be harder in some stressed state universities at this time). We don't work the crazy long hours of lawyers or of employees of start-ups. As one female faculty member stated at our luncheon, it's also nice to be treated to an elegant dinner and mini-vacation in a nice hotel during a colloquium visit.

Our stories are not discouraging. We can find happiness balancing work and life, and I believe we should promote this aspect of our careers -- even those of us who, like me, struggle at times with that balance.

Women in Astronomy & Space Sciences: Live-blogging Wednesday morning Part I

I got up feeling much better this morning, but wasn't quite able to make it in time, so I missed Anne Kinney's remarks and most of Ed Weiler's keynote address.

The one comment about Weiler's address I did catch: E/PO is crucial, children listen better to those who look like them,
so women should do more outreach. He also noted that 2/3 of population are NOT white men, so by not recruiting women and minorities, you're losing out on a lot of the available workforce.

Rachel Ivie: Longitudinal Study of Astronomy Graduate Students
A description of the Longitudinal Survey and some initial results. Some of the things the initial study focused on were symptoms of Impostor Syndrome and the kind of training grad students receive. Unsurprisingly, women suffer more from imposter syndrome than men, and mentoring is important.

Claude Canizares: Gender Differences at Critical Transitions in the Careers of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Faculty
An NRC study, to be published imminently. Snapshot surveys carried out in 2004 & 2005. In general, women represent an increasing share of representation in STEM, but it's still small. They find that while the proportion of women given interviews was greater than the applicantion rate and the proportion of offers given to women was still higher, the proportion of women among applications was itself much less than the available candidates. The biggest discrepancies were in biology and chemistry which have the greatest proportion of women overall. Best quote: the STEM field is a "profession designed by monks in the Middle Ages." During the question session, Meg Urry noted that women tend to carefully select and narrow down the number of jobs they apply for, while men tend to apply for many more jobs, and that might inflate the proportion of men in the application rate.

Also: they've passed out these Networking Booklets, where you need to gather 20 signatures from people you had not met before. At the networking event tonight, you get to be enrolled in a raffle! All us grumpy introverts are grumpy. (Ann H, if you're reading this, I'm not holding it against you.)

Peer Mentoring

It's pretty well established that success as an academic scientist depends very much on good mentoring. Whether this comes informally (e.g. old boy's network) or formally (e.g. MentorNet) is irrelevant: the key is getting sound advice and the social and scientific connections that will help you succeed.

A few weeks ago, the topic of mentoring came up in conversation, and MentorNet was mentioned. One person interjected, "MentorNet is useless. They don't have nearly enough women scientists available as mentors."

Part of this is probably that there simply aren't that many women in science, especially at the higher levels. The higher up I get in my field, the fewer women I see above me. Also, senior women in science already get asked to do a lot of mentoring and outreach precisely because there are so few of them. It almost seems unfair to ask them to do more.

One might argue that men can be mentors just as well as women, but quite frankly, there are some things that women go through that men simply can't relate to. This is part of the motivation behind Dr. Isis' Letters to Our Daughter's Project, which she started because:

It's not a secret that the largest attrition among female scientists happens in the transition between trainee and faculty. I also think that, for better or worse, there are things that are unique to being a female scientist that affect the ability/willingness of women to pursue careers in science. I know from my time at ScienceBlogs that there is a large group of women who are eager for the perspectives of successful women scientists as they consider their own careers in science.

Mentoring from senior scientists is undeniably valuable. But personally, I've been starting to rely a lot more on what I think of as Peer Mentoring, but might also be called B!+ch Sessions. I often feel like I get more out of discussions with fellow postdocs who are facing the same situations I am, rather than relying on the advice of more senior people who were postdocs during a different era. Part of it is, as I said before, that there are fewer women ahead of me the higher up I go. This might simply be the fact that I myself am aging. Many of my cohorts from graduate school have transitioned to professorships or otherwise permanent positions. The people I might turn to for mentoring are getting closer in age to me anyway, so why not simply brainstorm with my peers.

Lately, I've been reading Every Other Thursday by Ellen Daniell, which is about her support group for women scientists. The women in her group met together regularly, and helped each other through their careers. I'm amused at this editorial review on Amazon:

But the book's real failing is that instead of addressing Group members' journeys through science as women, it focuses on the same career roadblocks, personal disasters and need for self-empowerment that one finds in any self-help book ("I am entitled to be myself. I'm entitled to be successful"). Rather than hard-nosed help for aspiring young women scientists, this book, while it includes interesting passages on the machinations of university politics, essentially offers material that should best have remained within the Group.

Just because self-empowerment is addressed in any number of self-help books doesn't mean it's any less relevant to women scientists. I get the feeling that this author has never faced debilitating Imposter Syndrome before.

While I think the idea of support groups for women in science is great, it only works if you live in a region with high PhD density. Daniell worked at Berkeley, where there are more universities per square foot than perhaps anywhere else in the country. What if you live in a big rectangular state and work in a department with only one woman? I don't have a good answer for that.

Well, at least there's always blogging...