Summit on Gender and the Postdoctorate: vol. 1

Last week, I attended the National Postdoctoral Association's Summit on Gender and the Postdoctorate, which was held in Philadelphia last week, on March 11-12. I started writing up my thoughts about the meeting, and it started to get really long, so I've decided to break it up into a series of posts. The presentations will all be made available on the web eventually, but I'll present some highlights (and my own personal take on things) here.

Since my last post on employment sparked a bunch of discussion, I thought I would start by discussing the postdoc in terms of career trajectories. The upshot of the comments on my previous post is that there are plenty of valid career options for PhDs in astronomy, and that both early career astronomers (i.e. grad students and postdocs) and those training them need to be aware of the options, and to not view a research faculty positions as the be-all and end-all of a successful career.

AASWomen for March 12, 2010

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of March 12, 2010
eds. Joan Schmelz, Caroline Simpson, & Michele Montgomery

This week's issues:

1. WIA Blogspot: AAS Employment Session

2. International Women's Day 100 Year Centenary 1911-2011

3. Gender Balanced Scienitific Publications

4. Now Seeking Nominations - Outstanding Undergraduate Science Teacher

5. MacGillavry Fellowship

6. 12 month, Assistant Professor or Lecturer Position, Mount Allison University

7. How to Submit, Subscribe, or Unsubscribe to AASWOMEN

8. Access to Past Issues of AASWOMEN

AASWomen for March 5, 2010

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of March 05, 2010
eds. Joan Schmelz, Caroline Simpson & Michele Montgomery

This week's issues:

1. Meet the (New and Continuing) Editorial Staff of STATUS

2. AAS Childcare

3. Too Busy: A Comment

4. Blewett Scholarship

5. Four Funding Opportunities

6. MIT Poster Contest for Mentoring in Research

7. Outstanding Undergraduate Science Teacher

8. How to Submit, Subscribe, or Unsubscribe to AASWOMEN

9. Access to Past Issues of AASWOMEN

AASWomen of February 26, 2010

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of February 25, 2010
eds. Joan Schmelz, Caroline Simpson & Michele Montgomery

This week's issues:

1. AASWomen You tube: Women in Astronomy

2. Do we try to "protect" busy women by not inviting them?

3. Nominations sought for National Medal of Science

4. Women in Physics events at the APS Annual Meeting

5. Particle Physics Meeting, Blois, France

*** FOLLOWING JOB POSTINGS TAKEN FROM WIPHYS ***

6. Postdoctoral Position, Syracuse University

7. How to Submit, Subscribe, or Unsubscribe to AASWOMEN

8. Access to Past Issues of AASWOMEN

AAS Employment Session

I am writing this on my way to Philadelphia, where I will be attending the Summit on Gender and the Postdoctorate, hosted by the National Postdoctoral Association. I'll post a report on the meeting next week, but for now I'll (finally!) post a summary of the Employment session at the AAS Meeting.


On Monday morning of the AAS Meeting, I went to the special session on Employment, organized by Anil Seth. (Full disclosure: I am a co-author on Anil's decadal white paper on Employment & Funding in Astronomy.  There were four speakers on the Panel, Beryl Benderly, a writer for ScienceCareers at Science Magazine; Rachel Ivie, a statistician from the American Institute of Physics, well-known for her studies on women in physics and astronomy; Jim Ulvestad from the Employment Committee at the AAS; and Steve Beckwith, chair of Research for the U of C schools.

International Women's Day!

Happy International Women's Day!

A Russian-American friend of mine used to email me and all her female friends on this day every year to tell us about how in Russia, women would be showered with gifts and flowers.

While gifts and flowers are nice and all, I'd be much more appreciative of equal pay for equal work, maternity leave, and affordable quality childcare.

Chilcare at 215th AAS Meeting

Don Kniffen of the CSWA has the following report on childcare usage at the January 2010 AAS Meeting:

In an effort to make the AAS meetings more family friendly, at the 215^th Meeting in DC in January 2010 there was an on-site childcare facility made available for a nominal rate of $8 per hour per child. The CSWA and the AAS advertised this service to ensure that all who wished to take advantage of this program were aware of its existence. It appears the initial use was modest (see statistics below) and the AAS and CSWA hope that, through increased awareness and use by the community, it will become a regular feature of AAS meetings. The following data were provided by the AAS on usage of the facility.

AAS Child Care Program Usage Statistics

Sunday:	January 3 - 6:00 pm to	10:00 pm	2 children total, 2 infants
Monday:	January 4 - 8:00 am to	6:00 pm	10 children total, 2 infants
Tuesday:	January 5 - 8:00 am to	6:00 pm	10 children total, 1 infant
Wednesday:	January 6 - 8:00 am to	6:00 pm	10 children total, 1 infant
Thursday:	January 7 - 8:00 am to	6:00 pm	2 children total, 1 infant

The ages of the children ranged from 6 months through 12 years old as follows:

0 - 2 years old: 2 (25%)

3 - 5 years old: 4 (33%)

6 - 8 years old: 4 (33%)

9 - 12 years old: 1 ( 9%)

A total of 12 children from 8 families were signed up for the program. The CSWA is encouraged by this initial response. If members can confidently count on it being available, it will serve the society and its members with young children well.