Why We Leave

Reaching to the stars
by Ares Nguyen via flickr

The charge of the Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy is to recommend to the AAS Board of Trustees practical measures that the AAS can take to improve the status of women in astronomy and encourage their entry into this field. We define women to include people who identify as female, including trans women, genderqueer women, and non-binary people who are significantly female-identified. As an organization, the AAS supports and promotes increased participation of historically underrepresented groups in astronomy.

The CSWA has existed for almost 42 years. In that time we have seen a growth in women in the field (although the number of men has also increased alongside this). The linked AIP report found that there was no significant attrition of women between career stages in astronomy. However, attrition does occur for people of all identities, especially those who are underrepresented. We all know someone who left the field at some point.

AASWomen Newsletter for March 26, 2021

AAS Committee on the Status of Women

Issue of March 26, 2021

eds: Heather Flewelling, Nicolle Zellner, Maria Patterson, Jeremy Bailey, and Alessandra Aloisi

[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. --eds.]

This week's issues:

1. Women of Arecibo: Allison Smith

2. Crosspost: Inclusive Mentoring: The Mindset of an Effective Mentor

3. Supporting gender equality through understanding intersectionality

4. Diversity is hard to find among the highest paid leaders at elite research universities

5. Upcoming launch of $8.8 billion telescope places women’s leading roles in center focus

6. Women In STEM: Voices From Around The World

7. Women must not be obscured in science’s history

8. Upcoming SHIELD Webinar: Fri April 9th, 2021 2:00 PM EST

9. Meet the unknown female mathematician whose calculations helped discover Pluto

10. Vera Rubin, astronomer extraordinaire — a new biography

11. Job Opportunities

12. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

13. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

14. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

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AASWomen Newsletter for August 21, 2020

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of August 21, 2020
eds: Heather Flewelling, Nicolle Zellner, Maria Patterson, Alessandra Aloisi, and Jeremy Bailin

[We hope you all are taking care of yourselves and each other. Be well! --eds.]

This week's issues:

Leta Stetter Hollingworth, item 2
University of Nebraska Press

1. A female Ph.D. student’s cautionary tale and the need for peer mentorship

2. Meet The Forgotten Female Scientist Who Debunked Theories Of Male Superiority

3. Wives, Physics, and Nepotism in Academia

4. How to Showcase Your CV in a 2-Page Resume

5. Reckoning with Our Mistakes

6. Women less likely to receive pay for college internships

7. The X-Files and the Scully Effect - fake aliens, real-world phenomenon for women in STEM

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

AASWomen Newsletter for July 13, 2018

AAS Committee on the Status of Women

Issue of July 13, 2018

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

This week's issues:

1. Applications Open for AAS-EPD Mini-Grants

2. Meeting: Multi-Dimensional Characterization of Distant Worlds

3. Why women need mid-career mentors 

4. Institute Archives spotlights pioneering women at MIT

5. Why Science Breeds a Culture of Sexism 

6. Podcasting Is About to Become a Lot Less White and Male

7. 5 Inspiring Young Women Who are Leading the Way in STEM 

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

Celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month: The Arecibo Observatory Space Academy

Photo montage by Ricardo Correa 

Today’s guest bloggers are Edgard Rivera-Valentin and Luisa Zambrano-Marin. Ed is the Project Manager for the Space Academy and a staff scientist in the Planetary Radar group at the Arecibo Observatory. Luisa is the Program Coordinator for the Space Academy and a data analyst for the Planetary Radar Group at Arecibo Observatory.

We are Latinos, we are Scientists, and we are Educators. We often struggle to succeed in a field in which we are underrepresented and devalued both consciously and unconsciously by peers. Our upbringing, culture, and expectations are diverse and diverge from the “norm”. We understand what it’s like to feel unprepared for college, graduate school, and the professional workforce. And all too often, we know the struggle of breaking through established barriers in the scientific community. We are the 3%. 

Hispanics and Latinos are the largest underrepresented group with a measured interest in STEM fields. Studies show that Hispanic and Latino students are equally as interested in entering a STEM major in college as their White counterparts, and yet we are less likely to graduate with a degree in a STEM field (Crisp and Nora, 2012). There is indisputably a gap to be filled, one that we know occurs past the interest in STEM and before the student decides their career path. At the professional stage, it gets even more noticeable, despite the fact Latinos and Hispanics compose nearly 20% of the U.S. population, we only account for 3% of the STEM doctoral degrees and 3% of Physics faculty in the United States. 

So something is very wrong when we have a significant percentage of the population of which a significant number show strong interest in STEM fields and yet are not well represented in the professional stage.

Mentoring Minoritized* Students

A fundamental part of our role in academia, formally or informally, is mentorship. Although rarely trained in what that means (either as a mentee or a mentor) it is a crucial piece of how we move through academia. With increasing recognition about the role of mentorship in our careers I’d like to share some starting points for improving your mentoring of minoritized students. For those of us who find themselves minoritized in some ways but not others - these are still incredibly important.  

There is an ongoing conversation about how we can do better in roles as mentors. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein has written very clearly on the consequences of the failings of appropriate leadership and mentorship. In particular, I’d love for you to take this on as your mentor-theme: “Advising is about helping people get to their dream life”. What an incredible task, no? I asked on Twitter for people to share with me some of their experiences where things had gone wrong (and right too). 

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.

Events at the 227th American Astronomical Society Meeting

Several key events will be occurring at the 227th American Astronomical Society meeting, held January 4th-8th at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Kissimmee, Florida. Danny Barringer posted to Astrobetter for the upcoming meeting, and Jason Wright had previously written a first timer's guide to the AAS meeting for Astrobetter.

Below are highlights for events that may be of interest:

1. Student Pavilion and Mentoring Events:

The NEW Student Pavilion, located in the exhibit hall, will provide a unique space for students to meet, network, and collect information.  The Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy (CSMA), the Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy (CSWA), and the Committee for Sexual-Orientation & Gender Minorities in Astronomy (SGMA) have teamed up to provide table space and well as mentoring opportunities Tuesday-Friday.  Mentoring sessions will be held at 10 AM and 2 PM each day and will include mentors form various backgrounds (more information on mentors will be available in a future Women in Astronomy blog post).  The sign up sheets will be available starting at the UG Orientation Reception and will then be available at the student pavilion.

Fix the system, fix the people

Which system, which people? These questions were discussed two weeks ago at a very interesting session ADVANCE Grants: Increasing the Participation of Women in Physics at the summer meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers.



The NSF ADVANCE program seeks to increase the representation and advancement of women in academic science and engineering careers. Many important contributions have come from major ADVANCE programs around the country, including the STRIDE workshops and materials from the University of Michigan and workshops and materials on Departmental Climate and Breaking the Bias Habit from the the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The AAPT session provided an overview by Program Director Jessie DeAro and summaries of several projects. A major recurring theme was the question of where to focus effort for best effect.

A nice dichotomy was presented by  Sherry Yennello of Texas A&M University in her talk "From ‘Fixing Women’ to ‘Institutional Transformation’: An ADVANCE Case Study". We have a problem to solve: women are underrepresented in STEM and are failing to advance at their capacity. The problem involves both women as a group and the organizational culture of academic science and engineering, i.e., "the system." It is interesting to ask: Are we trying to fix the women, or fix the system? Or is this dichotomy too limited?

Mentoring initiatives are an example of helping women (and all mentees) to improve their chances of success, and are a frequent organizational response to the problem under discussion. The academic system has lots of hidden knowledge to be acquired, and in male-dominated disciplines women can find it harder to acquire this knowledge without special efforts. At least, this is how universities tend to view things. Many universities offer mentoring and career workshops to all, but the motivation sometimes seems to be to "help women and minorities." A similar lens may work for work-life balance, which often is, incorrectly, regarded as a women's issue. And yet women still spend on average much more time in chores and family care than men do, so there is an issue here!

The other talks in the session addressed similar themes, including initiatives to support women in STEM at the Rochester Institute of Technology summarized by Lea Michel, and a peer mentoring network of senior women in physics at small liberal arts colleges described by Anne Cox of  Eckerd College. The talks were great but they leave me with lingering questions and uneasy thoughts: What problem are we trying to solve, and how?

It is easy to focus solutions on people, hence the natural tendency to "fix the people." But which people?

Unconscious bias training such as that pioneered at Michigan and Wisconsin-Madison is another example of "fix the people" -- except that now, in caricature, "the people" are men, especially white men. We all have blind spots, but those exhibited by people in power are the most consequential. So it makes sense to reduce their effects by training the white men (among others).

Sherry Yennello noted another perspective: we could fix the system that women and men operate in so that everyone can succeed to their potential. This involves shifting organizational culture, which is difficult and can take many years. As an interim, continue to assist those who are not fully reaping the benefits of that culture. This seems like a good approach.

Fixing the system is hard because we don't always see it: Lea Michel used the metaphor of a fish in water. It's also hard because people interact with the system and are changed by it more readily than they can change the system.

An example is the great variety of departmental cultures present in a given field or within a given university. The law of large numbers does not seem to equalize climate: two different departments, hiring from the same group of people, can have vastly different traditions, culture, and experience. Person A may thrive in Department B but not in Department C, and this varies greatly with the person and the department.

The NSF ADVANCE program has long recognized this difference. Its Institutional Transformation awards seek "to produce large-scale comprehensive change and serve as a locus for research on gender equity and institutional transformation for academic STEM." The ADVANCE program is in its 15th year. This seems like the right timescale on which to seek institutional transformation.

Maybe the system is what needs fixing, not the people. But the system is widespread, and every new person joining an organization brings their own history of systems. And that brings the final complication: ourselves.

Each of us has work to do. We cannot easily "fix" others, and even less fix a system. But we can fix ourselves. We are all broken in ways, we all needing mending. How much time and effort do we put into that when we think about fixing others or fixing the system?

Social change is hard, harder than physics or astronomy. But those who can start change from within, and then inspire others, can make a tremendous contribution to solving the pressing problems of inequality.

Letter of Recommendation for Letters of Recommendation

My wife pointed out to me an interesting article in the May 2015 issue of Science about gender bias when writing letters of recommendation.  It is by Science Editor-in-Chief Marcia McNutt and describes her personal experience in reviewing graduate student proposals for small research grants.  She found systematic differences in letters of recommendation for female and male proposers that were detrimental to the females.

Here are some specifics.  Ten percent of the 60 proposers had one or more letter with inappropriate content for the purpose of the letter and all such cases were in letters for the women.  Prof. McNutt cites examples of mentioning that the candidate was "so good to her elderly mother", "spending time in nature with her husband and her animals friends".  Another discussed the candidate's balancing being a scientists and a mother.  Also, the language was on-average different between men and women in a detrimental way for women.  In some cases, the women got adjectives such as "friendly", "kind", "pleasant", "humble", and frequently "nice".  Typical language for the male candidates, and also many of the females candidates, included "brilliant", "creative", "hard-working", insightful" and "showing leadership".

 

Graphic from Science May 2015 issue (McNutt)

Diversity 101: Nine Simple Steps to a More Diverse Astronomical Community

 

 

Today’s bloggers are Joan Schmelz (me!), Program Officer at NSF, Physics Professor at the University of Memphis, Chair of CSWA, and soon-to-be Deputy Director of Arecibo Observatory; Dara Norman, Research Astronomer at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Visiting Faculty Fellow at Howard University, AAS Council Member, and Alum of CSMA; and Van Dixon, Scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute, and Chair of WGLE.

 

Mentoring Women: advice from Joan Schmelz

 

Those of us that work to make the astronomy community a more diverse place can learn from the old playbook of the senior white men who mentored a generation of junior white women, say 20 years ago. Many of these men had the best of intentions; many even hoped to make the world of astronomy a better place for their own daughters to grow up in. Some used the model of the father-daughter relationship to form the basis of the interactions they would have with their female students. Sometimes it worked – support, direction, and respect are all good components that can transfer from one dynamic to the other. Sometimes it didn’t work – hugging, love, and discipline are all components that are tricky to apply to the professional environment.

 

For those of us who do have the best of intentions, how do we navigate the diverse mentoring challenges of modern day astronomy? What can we learn from the last generation who helped white women break into the field and achieve success in numbers that now approach parity? I ask myself what advice I would have given to a well-intentioned senior white man about mentoring young women in astronomy (if one had bothered to ask, that is) back when I was a junior astronomer? Here are three simple things that any potential mentor could have done:

 

1. First, do no harm.

 

Don’t tell sexist jokes. You should never make insulting or condescending remarks about women as a group. Hint: if you think it could be insulting or condescending, it probably is. If you are a professor, be careful what you say in front of your class or to your advisees. Address both your colleagues and your students with respect. Don’t propagate old-fashioned ideas like women are too emotional or not logical enough to do science. You should never entangle your professional life with your personal life by asking your students out for coffee, beer, or dinner. Don’t touch your students on the arm or shoulder. Never hug or kiss your students. This may seem obvious and, indeed, it should be. But think of how different it might have been if everyone in the astronomy community had behaved in a professional manner. Sexual harassment and sexual discrimination would never have exploded into such damaging issues!

 

Uncomfortable conversations and my responsibility within our community

“I’m about to have an uncomfortable conversation with y’all.  I may turn red and become visibly emotional.  I apologize in advance.”  That statement is how I start almost every single one of my talks on anti-sexual harassment policies.  I know that the topic is hard for many in the room to discuss, that I may trigger an unwanted response, either in the form of a repressed thought or a negative defensive emotion, at any point in that hour.  I know that in order for those in the room with real power to hear about this topic, they need to see first-hand just how this unfortunate issue can negatively impact a person’s work, and their primary objective as a scientist. But I also know that for some people in the room, what they really want is for me to give them a hug and tell them it will be okay.  I know that my words will have a direct influence on the audience and I must act according to the level of respect and understanding every single person in that room deserves.  That’s not easy, and I know up-front that I have put myself into a position of responsibility.

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.”

Women of Color in Astronomy and Astrophysics

"Women of Color in Astronomy and Astrophysics" was a joint effort of the AAS Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy (CSMA) and the AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy (CSWA). It was written by Dara Norman, Jedidah Isler & Hakeem Oluseyi (CSMA) and Nancy Morrison, Caroline Simpson & Laura Trouille (CSWA). It is especially powerful because it describes strategies for overcoming the barriers that have kept the percentages of Women of Color in the sciences so low.

 

This document is part of the 2013 conference entitled, “Seeking Solutions: Maximizing American Talent by Advancing Women of Color in Academia.” It is reprinted here with permission from the National Academy of Sciences, Courtesy of the National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.

 

Introduction

 

Women of color (WoC) are at the intersection of race and gender. While they experience issues that arise for both women and minority groups, they are often overlooked in efforts on behalf of either category, to the detriment of their persistence in academia [1]. The next section of this article enumerates barriers that face WoC in astronomy, starting with those that particularly affect career establishment (early graduate student to postdoctoral) and moving to those that impact later career stages. Later sections describe steps toward solutions to these problems, measures taken by the American Astronomical Society (AAS), and lessons learned from academic programs.

 

Full STEAM Ahead! The Adler Planetarium’s 2nd Annual Girls do Hack Day

Choo choo! I am full STEAM ahead on the STEM + art/design train. This past Saturday, at our 2nd annual Girls do Hack Day at the Adler Planetarium, I saw first-hand how well it works to use the creativity and fun of art/design to hook girls into STEM. 

Respect Isn't Enough

My colleague John Johnson recently recommended the book Seeing White: An Introduction to White Privilege and Race and asked that I read it so that we could have a more informed discussion as we work together over the coming years. I confessed to him at that time that I hadn't read a book in a long time (and I am now confessing the same to you, dear Reader), but that I would try. Well, I am happy to report that I am now halfway through. The last chapter I read described different frameworks in which to understand discussions of race and privilege, and I was particularly struck by the discussion of one such framework, namely that of Multiculturalism.

In the book's definition of Multiculturalism, a multiculturalist would express understanding for different groups, celebrate an appreciation of these differences, seek to ensure diversity in their community, and advocate respect for individuals in these different groups.

Perhaps many of you might be thinking: That certainly sounds pretty good! Respect, understanding, and diversity are all very progressive words. I might even go further and argue that many members of our astronomy community strive to achieve these goals.

So, what's missing from this picture?

One Man's Perspective on Diversity and Inequality in Science

Today's Guest Post is by Ramin Skibba is a research scientist at the Center for Astrophysics & Space Sciences at the University of California, San Diego. He blogs about astronomy news and science policy issues at http://raminskibba.net.

It's obvious, but one thing I've noticed over my career so far is that many departments, institutions, conferences, organizations, committees, high-profile publications, big research grants, etc., both nationally and internationally, and especially leadership positions, are filled with straight, white, men. There are notable and impressive exceptions, but the trend is clear. The distributions of people in the scientific workforce clearly don't reflect their distribution in the overall population. For example, according to the AAS's Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy, nearly half of undergraduate students who obtain bachelors of science degrees are women, but only a third of astronomy graduate students and 30% of Ph.D. recipients are. Women compose 25-30% of postdocs and lower-level faculty, and this drops by half (to 15%) of tenured faculty. This is not explained by historical differences in gender: if women were promoted and retained at rates comparable to men, then the fractions advancing to higher career stages should be equal. The demographics in terms of race aren't good either: according to the American Institute of Physics, African Americans and Hispanics combined account for only 5% of physics faculty.

Of course, this isn't news to readers of this blog. And the disturbing lack of diversity doesn't just affect us in astronomy and astrophysics or even just in the physical sciences. For example, as you've probably seen, the lack of diversity in Silicon Valley has deservedly been in the news lately. Tech companies like Google, Yahoo, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter have all been criticized for being dominated by white men (and recently, also Asian men). We definitely need to work more at improving diversity in all STEM fields. 

Do-It-Yourself Mentoring

Do-it-yourself mentoring sounds like an oxymoron, but the idea is that women can find mentors in not-obvious places if they look around.  Here are a few stories of life experiences from women in my family on finding mentoring and getting inspired.  In general, the lack of adequate role models and mentors can be a significant factor in hindering women scientists in their careers.   Starting in childhood, girls will typically find fewer scientists or engineers of their gender in their families to look up to than boys do.  This can be a serious impediment to considering science as a career since family experience plays a huge role in influencing our directions.  Later in life, women will see fewer female scientists in senior positions as examples to strive for.  The situation is improving with every year, but there are still challenges.

Extended family and friends can give a pool of role models outside the immediate family.  TV can also help.  My wife found a few successful women to look up to on television in her formative early years.  In my family, my mother went back to school while us kids were growing up and greatly inspired my younger sister.

In school, interactions with particular teachers and students can be quite important.  While in college, my sister-in-law heard about a woman doing exciting field work in geology who needed a research assistant.  She got the job and became hooked on geology.  My wife had an excellent chemistry teacher in high school who got her interested in science.  He was opened minded and was a role model for many boys and girls.  The important points were that he enjoyed chemistry, made it seem relevant and fun, and believed in the ability of his students of both genders to succeed.  In this case, a man was a fine role model even for the girls. 

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In graduate school, my wife was one of the small group of women students at Caltech and there were no women on the science and engineering faculty.  She found a good way to go by joining one of the few groups with women graduate students.  In fact, the female students tended to be found in clumps throughout the university.  This provided immediate excellent mentors in the older students.  She now wonders if it was the women who attracted each other to the group or if it was topic of the group (a new and growing field, surface physics, in her case) that was of particular interest to women.

After starting a career, men have lots of people to look up to, not to mention the old boys network to give support.  It is harder for women, but casting a wider net can do the trick.  The "new girls' networks" tend to be from larger groups of universities and across departments, instead of within a department.  There are actually some advantages to such a broad group in that women get to know colleagues in different areas and different institutions.

The bottom line is that it is harder for women to find mentors, but a little ingenuity can get the job done.   The women who succeed have the benefit of a wider group of contacts and more flexible approach.

Fed Up With Sexual Harassment: Survival of the Clueless

Picture from noworkplaceviolence.com

This is the second in a series of posts on the topic of sexual harassment in astronomy. The first can be found here (Defining the problem), with more to come later this week.

Long-term readers of the Women in Astronomy Blogspot will know that I “Came Out” as a victim of sexual harassment in 2011; you can read my story here. Helping victims navigate the confusing rules, hazardous landscapes, and blame-the-victim strategies has been part of my raison d’etre since joining CSWA. I am amazed at how much sexual harassment still goes on in the astronomy community. Unfortunately, it is not just a thing of the past. Here are a few examples of how sexual harassment manifests itself in the 21st century.

 Some sexual harassers have learned exactly how far they can push a situation before they have to pull back. They walk right up to the line and take a small step over it. The harasser can, for example, touch the victim on the shoulder when saying, “Good Morning,” or say something a bit unprofessional like, “You just look too nice today.” Depending on the reaction of the victim, the harasser can quickly retreat behind the line with profuse apologies for going too far. If, on the other hand, the victim reacts in a friendly manner, the harasser can redraw the line and repeat the tactic (more on this in tomorrow's post).

A Call to Nominate! And, Self-Nominate Too!

Fellow AAS Members!

The time has come for you to nominate!  Nominate, I say, be it thy colleague, or thyself!

The AAS Prizes are important. They are our community's most visible means to foster and acknowledge excellence in research, education, and service.

Yet some of the research prizes remain overwhelming exclusive of women.