AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of March 9, 2018
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, and Maria Patterson
This week's issues:
1. How female fellows fared at the Royal Society
2. What Happens to Us Does Not Happen to Most of You
3. Title IX- A Step by Step Guide
4. The deck stacked against women in science
5. Women Who Shaped Science
6. The West is way behind Iran and Saudi Arabia when it comes to women in science
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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. How female fellows fared at the Royal Society
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
In a study of archival records, Røstvik and Fyfe evaluate how the induction of women into the Royal Society in London has affected publication records since 1665. In 1787, astronomer Caroline Herschel’s description of a comet was the first report in Philosophical Transactions by a woman. Over time, while membership by women has increased, their participation as publishers, referees, and editors has not. "[I]n 1955, 2.8% of submitted papers were refereed by a woman; in 1985, only 0.3% were."
Read why at
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-02746-z?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20180309&spMailingID=56151484&spUserID=MjA1NzcxNzE5OAS2&spJobID=1361248578&spReportId=MTM2MTI0ODU3OAS2
Find the original study at
https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/12492
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. What Happens to Us Does Not Happen to Most of You
From: Larry Denneau [denneau_at_hawaii.edu]
By Kathryn McKinley
"This blog post is a personal account of sexism, harassment, and racism that I and some anonymous members of the computer architecture community have experienced. We are sharing these experiences in part because of encouragement by male colleagues who found them shocking. We are all still here because the rewards and great colleagues out weigh the bad experiences. However, we want to raise community awareness and instigate change.
Men do not experience our community the same way women do. The power dynamics of academia give individuals a lot of power, e.g., hallway conversations and recommendation letters greatly influence career-defining decisions. These dynamics demand the highest ethical practices and vigorous attention to limit the influence of factors that have nothing to do with research quality and impact. We want every individual to take more responsibility for our culture and meritocracy, fostering research excellence by making our community a more welcoming place for women, underrepresented minorities, and everyone else."
Read more at
https://www.sigarch.org/what-happens-to-us-does-not-happen-to-most-of-you/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Title IX- A Step by Step Guide
From: Heather Flewelling [heather_at_ifa.hawaii.edu]
By an anonymous guest blogger at Tenure She Wrote
"Sexual assaults, harassment, gender and racial biases occur with frightening regularity for women in academia. In spite of increasing awareness of these problems, there is very little about what the Title IX process looks like from a personal perspective.
Participating in a Title IX case is nothing short of soul crushing. Your university will not support you, you will be the subject of gossip and, perhaps most distressingly, you will be intimidated and retaliated against for your honesty. Retaliation is illegal under Title IX, but not only does it occur, it is cornerstone of the process by which academics are silenced and, I suspect, the reason I could find so few first hand accounts of participating in a case."
Read more at
https://tenureshewrote.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/title-ix-a-step-by-step-guide/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. The deck stacked against women in science
From: Heather Flewelling [heather_at_ifa.hawaii.edu]
By Nicola Jones
"The player on my left has the biochemist Maud Menten’s career well on track. Suddenly another player slaps a “stupid patriarchy” card on Menten’s head, and she has to earn her doctorate all over again. So goes a novel card game devoted to women in science and engineering, designed to highlight these unsung researchers and the barriers and boons that women in these fields experience.
Menten (1879-1960) was one of the first women in Canada to earn a medical degree atop her PhD. But at the time women weren’t allowed to do research at Canadian universities; she had to conduct her famous work on enzyme kinetics in the United States and Germany. Menten is one of 21 pioneering women scientists, mostly from North America, featured in the game — the latest in a series that began in 2000 with a biodiversity game called Phylo. The card deck was developed by an innovative science outreach programme at Vancouver’s University of British Columbia (UBC), in collaboration with Westcoast Women in Engineering, Science and Technology (WWEST) at Burnaby’s Simon Fraser University (SFU). Players complete researchers’ careers by collecting cards for achievements such as degrees, and try to avoid setbacks — such as the “tokenism” card, which wipes a scientist in play off the table."
Read more at
http://blogs.nature.com/aviewfromthebridge/2018/03/08/the-deck-women-in-science/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Women Who Shaped Science
From: Cristina Thomas [cristina.thomas_at_nau.edu]
"The sciences are defined by those who push past the bounds of human knowledge and break down the thought barriers of their time. But by and large, it’s men—mostly white ones—whose achievements are recorded in the history books. We celebrate them as geniuses who upended our understanding of the cosmos, the planet and ourselves.
Smithsonian.com is sharing the stories of women scientists who also changed the world, but were written out of history. It was a woman (atmospheric researcher Eunice Foote) who first outlined the global greenhouse effect; a woman (FDA pharmacologist Frances Oldham Kelsey) who stood between America and an epidemic of birth defects; and a woman (astronomer Maria Mitchell) who named comets and shaped the early field of astronomy.
These pioneers paved the way for future generations of women scientists and explorers. But spotlighting their stories is about more than just augmenting women’s history. It’s about understanding the cultural attitudes, historical forces and social realities that made science what it is today—and what it will be tomorrow."
Read the stories at
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/women-science-180967866/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. The West is way behind Iran and Saudi Arabia when it comes to women in science
From: Cristina Thomas [cristina.thomas_at_nau.edu]
By Annalisa Merelli
"In Iran, nearly 70% of university graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are women—a higher percentage than in any other country. Nearby Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are close, each boasting over 60% female graduates in science, still more of the rest of the world.
Young women in science are the rule, not the exception, in the Middle East. At least a third of STEM trained talent across the Muslim world is female, writes Saadia Zahidi in her new book Fifty Million Rising, which tracks the workplace progress achieved by Muslim women since the turn of the century."
Read more at
https://qz.com/1223067/iran-and-saudi-arabia-lead-when-it-comes-to-women-in-science/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Job Opportunities
For those interested in increasing excellence and diversity in their organizations, a list of resources and advice is here: https://cswa.aas.org/diversity.html#howtoincrease
-Research Scientist, Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL
http://go.illinois.edu/ASTRResSci
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
To submit an item to the AASWOMEN newsletter, including replies to topics, send email to aaswomen_at_aas.org
All material will be posted unless you tell us otherwise, including your email address.
When submitting a job posting for inclusion in the newsletter, please include a one-line description and a link to the full job posting.
Please remember to replace "_at_" in the e-mail address above.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
Join AAS Women List by email:
Send email to aaswlist+subscribe_at_aas.org from the address you want to have subscribed. You can leave the subject and message blank if you like.
Be sure to follow the instructions in the confirmation email. (Just reply back to the email list)
To unsubscribe by email:
Send email to aaswlist+unsubscribe_at_aas.org from the address you want to have UNsubscribed. You can leave the subject and message blank if you like.
To join or leave AASWomen via web, or change your membership settings:
https://groups.google.com/a/aas.org/group/aaswlist
You will have to create a Google Account if you do not already have one, using https://accounts.google.com/newaccount?hl=en
Google Groups Subscribe Help:
http://support.google.com/groups/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=46606
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10. Access to Past Issues
https://cswa.aas.org/AASWOMEN.html
Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.
Issue of March 9, 2018
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, and Maria Patterson
This week's issues:
1. How female fellows fared at the Royal Society
2. What Happens to Us Does Not Happen to Most of You
3. Title IX- A Step by Step Guide
4. The deck stacked against women in science
5. Women Who Shaped Science
6. The West is way behind Iran and Saudi Arabia when it comes to women in science
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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. How female fellows fared at the Royal Society
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
In a study of archival records, Røstvik and Fyfe evaluate how the induction of women into the Royal Society in London has affected publication records since 1665. In 1787, astronomer Caroline Herschel’s description of a comet was the first report in Philosophical Transactions by a woman. Over time, while membership by women has increased, their participation as publishers, referees, and editors has not. "[I]n 1955, 2.8% of submitted papers were refereed by a woman; in 1985, only 0.3% were."
Read why at
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-02746-z?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20180309&spMailingID=56151484&spUserID=MjA1NzcxNzE5OAS2&spJobID=1361248578&spReportId=MTM2MTI0ODU3OAS2
Find the original study at
https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/12492
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. What Happens to Us Does Not Happen to Most of You
From: Larry Denneau [denneau_at_hawaii.edu]
By Kathryn McKinley
"This blog post is a personal account of sexism, harassment, and racism that I and some anonymous members of the computer architecture community have experienced. We are sharing these experiences in part because of encouragement by male colleagues who found them shocking. We are all still here because the rewards and great colleagues out weigh the bad experiences. However, we want to raise community awareness and instigate change.
Men do not experience our community the same way women do. The power dynamics of academia give individuals a lot of power, e.g., hallway conversations and recommendation letters greatly influence career-defining decisions. These dynamics demand the highest ethical practices and vigorous attention to limit the influence of factors that have nothing to do with research quality and impact. We want every individual to take more responsibility for our culture and meritocracy, fostering research excellence by making our community a more welcoming place for women, underrepresented minorities, and everyone else."
Read more at
https://www.sigarch.org/what-happens-to-us-does-not-happen-to-most-of-you/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Title IX- A Step by Step Guide
From: Heather Flewelling [heather_at_ifa.hawaii.edu]
By an anonymous guest blogger at Tenure She Wrote
"Sexual assaults, harassment, gender and racial biases occur with frightening regularity for women in academia. In spite of increasing awareness of these problems, there is very little about what the Title IX process looks like from a personal perspective.
Participating in a Title IX case is nothing short of soul crushing. Your university will not support you, you will be the subject of gossip and, perhaps most distressingly, you will be intimidated and retaliated against for your honesty. Retaliation is illegal under Title IX, but not only does it occur, it is cornerstone of the process by which academics are silenced and, I suspect, the reason I could find so few first hand accounts of participating in a case."
Read more at
https://tenureshewrote.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/title-ix-a-step-by-step-guide/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. The deck stacked against women in science
From: Heather Flewelling [heather_at_ifa.hawaii.edu]
By Nicola Jones
"The player on my left has the biochemist Maud Menten’s career well on track. Suddenly another player slaps a “stupid patriarchy” card on Menten’s head, and she has to earn her doctorate all over again. So goes a novel card game devoted to women in science and engineering, designed to highlight these unsung researchers and the barriers and boons that women in these fields experience.
Menten (1879-1960) was one of the first women in Canada to earn a medical degree atop her PhD. But at the time women weren’t allowed to do research at Canadian universities; she had to conduct her famous work on enzyme kinetics in the United States and Germany. Menten is one of 21 pioneering women scientists, mostly from North America, featured in the game — the latest in a series that began in 2000 with a biodiversity game called Phylo. The card deck was developed by an innovative science outreach programme at Vancouver’s University of British Columbia (UBC), in collaboration with Westcoast Women in Engineering, Science and Technology (WWEST) at Burnaby’s Simon Fraser University (SFU). Players complete researchers’ careers by collecting cards for achievements such as degrees, and try to avoid setbacks — such as the “tokenism” card, which wipes a scientist in play off the table."
Read more at
http://blogs.nature.com/aviewfromthebridge/2018/03/08/the-deck-women-in-science/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Women Who Shaped Science
From: Cristina Thomas [cristina.thomas_at_nau.edu]
"The sciences are defined by those who push past the bounds of human knowledge and break down the thought barriers of their time. But by and large, it’s men—mostly white ones—whose achievements are recorded in the history books. We celebrate them as geniuses who upended our understanding of the cosmos, the planet and ourselves.
Smithsonian.com is sharing the stories of women scientists who also changed the world, but were written out of history. It was a woman (atmospheric researcher Eunice Foote) who first outlined the global greenhouse effect; a woman (FDA pharmacologist Frances Oldham Kelsey) who stood between America and an epidemic of birth defects; and a woman (astronomer Maria Mitchell) who named comets and shaped the early field of astronomy.
These pioneers paved the way for future generations of women scientists and explorers. But spotlighting their stories is about more than just augmenting women’s history. It’s about understanding the cultural attitudes, historical forces and social realities that made science what it is today—and what it will be tomorrow."
Read the stories at
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/women-science-180967866/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. The West is way behind Iran and Saudi Arabia when it comes to women in science
From: Cristina Thomas [cristina.thomas_at_nau.edu]
By Annalisa Merelli
"In Iran, nearly 70% of university graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are women—a higher percentage than in any other country. Nearby Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are close, each boasting over 60% female graduates in science, still more of the rest of the world.
Young women in science are the rule, not the exception, in the Middle East. At least a third of STEM trained talent across the Muslim world is female, writes Saadia Zahidi in her new book Fifty Million Rising, which tracks the workplace progress achieved by Muslim women since the turn of the century."
Read more at
https://qz.com/1223067/iran-and-saudi-arabia-lead-when-it-comes-to-women-in-science/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Job Opportunities
For those interested in increasing excellence and diversity in their organizations, a list of resources and advice is here: https://cswa.aas.org/diversity.html#howtoincrease
-Research Scientist, Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL
http://go.illinois.edu/ASTRResSci
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
To submit an item to the AASWOMEN newsletter, including replies to topics, send email to aaswomen_at_aas.org
All material will be posted unless you tell us otherwise, including your email address.
When submitting a job posting for inclusion in the newsletter, please include a one-line description and a link to the full job posting.
Please remember to replace "_at_" in the e-mail address above.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
Join AAS Women List by email:
Send email to aaswlist+subscribe_at_aas.org from the address you want to have subscribed. You can leave the subject and message blank if you like.
Be sure to follow the instructions in the confirmation email. (Just reply back to the email list)
To unsubscribe by email:
Send email to aaswlist+unsubscribe_at_aas.org from the address you want to have UNsubscribed. You can leave the subject and message blank if you like.
To join or leave AASWomen via web, or change your membership settings:
https://groups.google.com/a/aas.org/group/aaswlist
You will have to create a Google Account if you do not already have one, using https://accounts.google.com/newaccount?hl=en
Google Groups Subscribe Help:
http://support.google.com/groups/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=46606
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10. Access to Past Issues
https://cswa.aas.org/AASWOMEN.html
Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.
