Friday, May 10, 2019

AASWomen Newsletter for May 10, 2019

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of May 10, 2019
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Maria Patterson, JoEllen McBride, and Ale Aloisi (guest ed.)

[AAS has migrated their email system to Microsoft Exchange. Therefore, it is no longer possible to subscribe or unsubscribe to the AASWomen newsletter by means of Google Groups. Please follow us on social media for updates and bear with us as we work out all the kinks.]
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This week's issues:

1. Crosspost: Female scientists start a database to showcase their work. Over 9,000 women join them

2. The largest study involving transgender people is providing long-sought insights about their health

3. Science Communication Workshop for Physical Sciences

4. Bonus: Talking Feminist Astrophysics with Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

5. Decolonization and intersectionality in tech, with Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

6. Arab women scientists call out gender discrimination in the workplace

7. Women in science are facing many of the same barriers, inequality, and discrimination that they did 300 years ago

8. Job Opportunities

9. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

10. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

11. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter


1. Crosspost: Female scientists start a database to showcase their work. Over 9,000 women join them.
From: Cristina Thomas via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

In January 2018, 500 Women Scientists launched the "Request a Woman Scientist" database. Over the past couple of weeks a number of articles have been written about the inspiring number of women who have signed up. As of this week, over 9,000 women have joined!

Read more at

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2019/05/cross-post-female-scientists-start.html

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2. The largest study involving transgender people is providing long-sought insights about their health
From: Nancy Morrison [nancyastro126_at_gmail.com]

By Sara Reardon

"Benita Arren wishes that the human body came with instructions. “We have a manual with every little thing we buy, in eight languages, but not for myself,” she says. About a decade ago, Arren was struggling with inner conflict. Designated male at birth, she had secretly dressed up in her mother’s clothes as a child, but she suppressed her feelings for decades. Then in her forties, married with two children and busy with a job in Antwerp, Belgium, she found them resurfacing. The masculine persona in her head — how she had long known herself to be — was falling away, leaving her feeling as though she had no personality at all. “Your consciousness is not fast enough to understand all those emotions,” she says.."

Read more at

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01237-z

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3. Science Communication Workshop for Physical Sciences
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]

Here is another opportunity with ComSciCon and AIP for science Communication training in September. There is funding for travel!

Read more at

https://astrobites.org/2019/05/07/a-communicating-science-workshop-just-for-physical-sciences-grad-students-comscicon19

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4. Bonus: Talking Feminist Astrophysics with Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]

By Leila A. McNeill

"In this episode of the Lady Scientists bonus series, Leila talks with astrophysicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein about intersectionality, history of science, and how scientific knowledge is produced and who produces it."

Listen to the podcast at

https://www.ladyscience.com/podcast/talking-feminist-astrophysics-chanda-prescod-weinstein

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5. Decolonization and intersectionality in tech, with Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]

By Greg Epstein

"The first Black woman in history to hold a faculty position in theoretical cosmology, Prescod-Weinstein is also a Twitter activist who frequently goes viral, a prolific writer and editor in multiple genres and disciplines, and the author of a soon to come column in the New Scientist, and a 2021 book, The Disordered Cosmos: from Dark Matter to Black Lives Matter.

A millennial, she is at the vanguard of a new cohort of brilliant, young, tech-savvy academics who are conducting important research in science and technology while also gracefully shouldering the responsibility of helping transform the way many of us think about what it means to be a scientist or technologist and who we think of when we imagine those categories."

Read more at

https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/08/decolonization-and-intersectionality-in-tech-with-chanda-prescod-weinstein

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6. Arab women scientists call out gender discrimination in the workplace
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]

By Nadia El-Awady

"Nature Middle East contacted Arab women scientists registered with the Request a Woman Scientist platform, to discover the main gender-related challenges they face and how they might be overcome. 25 women (22%) from 12 Arab countries responded from the total 114 who are registered. Their positions ranged from undergraduate students to a university vice president. Their responses suggest that women face a variety of gender-related challenges common to workplaces around the world. Their voices resonate with frustration and strength. Below are excerpts from some of the responses we received"

Read more at

https://www.natureasia.com/en/nmiddleeast/article/10.1038/nmiddleeast.2019.69

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7. Women in science are facing many of the same barriers, inequality, and discrimination that they did 300 years ago
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]

Some thoughts I had while writing and researching a piece on Maria Winkelmann-Kirch.

Read more at

https://massivesci.com/notes/maria-margaretha-kirch-women-science-stem-children-inequality

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8. 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 Astrophysicist, X-ray Astrophysics Laboratory at NASA GSFC https://jobregister.aas.org/ad/9fba07b8

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9. 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.

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10. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter

AAS has migrated the mailing list for this newsletter to Mailman. Please watch this space for updated instructions on subscribing and unsubscribing to the AASWomen Newsletter.

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11. Access to Past Issues

https://cswa.aas.org/AASWOMEN.html

Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.

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