Friday, June 21, 2019

AASWomen Newsletter for June 21, 2019

AAS Committee on the Status of Women AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of June 21, 2019
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Maria Patterson, and JoEllen McBride

[AAS has migrated their email system to Microsoft Exchange, so please check your spam folder if you did not receive the newsletter this week. It is no longer possible to subscribe or unsubscribe to the AASWomen newsletter by means of Google Groups. We have updated our subscribe and unsubscribe instructions below. Please follow us on social media for updates and thank you for bearing with us as we work out all the kinks.
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Sally Ride, from item 2
This week's issues:

1. Crosspost: Symposium in Honor of the Legacy of Vera Rubin

2. Sally Ride became the first American woman in space 36 years ago today

3. A Push For More Inclusivity In Science

4. US science agencies report ‘shockingly low’ rates of harassment complaints

5. NIH should ask both institutions and investigators to report sexual harassment findings, advisory group says

6. Unintended consequences of gender-equality plans

7. Psychology Today: It’s Not You, It’s Them

8. Where Are All the Working Mothers in STEM?

9. Making space for female scientists' voices online, in the media and in person

10. Why women in tech are being Photoshopped in instead of hired

11. What it's like to be a trans scientist with imposter syndrome - Lady Science

12. An interview with the CLEAR Lab’s Queer Science Reading Group

13. Job Opportunities

14. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

15. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

16. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter


1. Crosspost: Symposium in Honor of the Legacy of Vera Rubin
From: JoEllen McBride via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

Dr. Vera Rubin, who passed away in Dec. 2016, was one of the most important astrophysicists of the 20th and 21st centuries. She received her Ph.D. from Georgetown University in 1954, and pioneered the study of galaxy rotation rates that provided definitive evidence for the existence of Dark Matter. Dr. Rubin was also a fierce and effective advocate for women in science. This symposium to honor and celebrate her legacy brings together astrophysicists whose research was made possible by Dr. Rubin’s discoveries to present the latest developments in the field and discuss the connections with Dr. Rubin’s discoveries.

Read more at

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2019/06/crosspost-symposium-in-honor-of-legacy.html

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2. Sally Ride became the first American woman in space 36 years ago today
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]

By Jasmine Hyman and Brian Ries

"It's been 36 years since the world witnessed a giant leap for womankind. June 18th marks the 36th anniversary of astronaut Sally Ride's famous trip into space.

At just 32 years old, Ride was the first American woman, and the youngest American, to leave the atmosphere when she boarded the Space Shuttle Challenger on June 18, 1983."

Read more at

https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/18/us/sally-ride-36-years-space-trnd/index.html

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3. A Push For More Inclusivity In Science
From: Alessandra Aloisi [aloisi_at_stsci.edu]

"Diversity is inherent to the functioning of our world. In fact, there is a physical phenomena known as entropy, which states that the universe naturally moves toward a state of more disorder, or more diverse environment. Perhaps we don't need to go as far an abstract concept of the universe, we can look at our daily life. Although many of us may have established routines, we still seek to freshen things up and try out new adventures. This is explained by the myriad of business built that offer diversity: for example there are many options available to us, from travel to restaurants, to books or TV series. The existence of all these of these offerings serve as an example as to how we as human beings seek out diversity. In fact, I have previously written that diversity also plays an important function in business, where companies that are more diverse have 19% higher revenue."

Read more at

https://www.forbes.com/sites/annapowers/2019/06/13/a-push-for-more-inclusivity-in-science/#6b336e5833af

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4. US science agencies report ‘shockingly low’ rates of harassment complaints
From: Heather Flewelling [flewelling.heather_at_gmail.com] and Pat Knezek [pknezek_at_gmail.com]

"Many agencies do not require institutions to report findings of harassment by government-funded researchers.

Several major US government science agencies say they have received few reports of sexual harassment by the researchers whose work they fund, despite studies that have found such behaviour to be pervasive in US academic science."

Read more at

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01873-5?

and

https://psmag.com/news/americas-science-agencies-sexual-harassment-policies-are-still-super-confusing-an-investigation-finds

Read the full report at

https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-19-583T

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5. NIH should ask both institutions and investigators to report sexual harassment findings, advisory group says
From: Pat Knezek [pknezek_at_gmail.com]

"To combat sexual harassment in biomedical research, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) should ask grant applicants directly whether they have been found guilty of sexual harassment and require institutions to tell NIH about any such findings, as well as investigations. Those recommendations were released today by a working group advising NIH about how to bolster its policies in this hot-button area."

Read more at

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/06/nih-should-ask-both-institutions-and-investigators-report-sexual-harassment-findings

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6. Unintended consequences of gender-equality plans
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]

By Charikleia Tzanakou

"Another unintended consequence is that women can be penalized by the programmes designed to help them. A 2014 analysis found that women make up more than 70% of Athena SWAN champions, a labour-intensive role that takes time away from their research. My colleague and I found similar patterns in an analysis of 11 institutions with silver SWAN awards: ten teams had more female members than male; eight of the submission teams were led by women."

Read more at

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01904-1

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7. Psychology Today: It’s Not You, It’s Them
From: Angela Speck [speckan_at_missouri.edu]

This article on Psychology Today is by a friend and colleague here at Mizzou and seems like something the CSWA should share.

It’s Not You, It’s Them.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/between-us/201906/it-s-not-you-it-s-them?eml

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8. Where Are All the Working Mothers in STEM?
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]

By Cui Wang

"The greatest challenge in the life of a mother-scientist, almost without exception, lies in refining the balance between the two rewarding roles. It takes effort and adjustment, not to mention compromise and sacrifice. It’s not about “having it all" - which, in my opinion, is an unhealthy, unhelpful expectation - nor is it about being one thing more than the other. My passion lies in my field, and my pride in my children."

Read more at

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/where-are-all-the-working-mothers-in-stem

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9. Making space for female scientists' voices online, in the media and in person
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]

This article references our Women in Astronomy Database which will be back up and running in the near future. Stay tuned!

Read more at

https://www.dw.com/en/making-space-for-female-scientists-voices-online-in-the-media-and-in-person/a-49258608

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10. Why women in tech are being Photoshopped in instead of hired
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]

By Rani Molla

"An image of a tech event in which two women CEOs were poorly Photoshopped into a group of 15 men reignited a discussion last week about tech companies’ ongoing failures to meaningfully diversify their workforces.

Companies like Google and Facebook have overturned industries, changed the way we live, and are shaping the future. Yet somehow they haven’t been able to hire a workforce that even remotely represents their customers. Across the tech industry, the share of black and Latinx people in tech and leadership roles is often well below 5 percent, while women typically make up about a fifth to a quarter of those positions."

Read more at

https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/6/17/18678541/women-tech-photoshop-diversity

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11. What it's like to be a trans scientist with imposter syndrome - Lady Science
From: Angela Speck [speckan_at_missouri.edu]

"CW: transphobia, depression, suicide

“You’re very lucky! Just ten years ago, I would’ve had you thrown out of my office.” These were the last words a professor ever said to me when I came out as trans during my undergrad. "

Read more at

https://www.ladyscience.com/blog/what-its-like-to-be-a-trans-scientist-with-imposter-syndrome

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12. An interview with the CLEAR Lab’s Queer Science Reading Group
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]

By Lady Science

"For most of the past year, members of the CLEAR (Civic Lab for Environmental Action Research) Lab in St. John’s, Newfoundland have grappled with that question. As an anticolonial and feminist marine plastics lab, CLEAR focuses mainly on monitoring the presence of plastics in waterways and wild food. Since last fall, CLEAR members have held a queer science reading group to consider how to put queer theories into scientific practice.

Lady Science spoke with two members of the CLEAR lab to discuss how this queer science reading group came into being, and how they hope to use what they’ve learned to develop a queer science manifesto. "

Read more at

https://www.ladyscience.com/blog/categories-arent-these-things-that-are-just-there?rq=queer

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13. 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

- Faculty - Natural Sciences (Physics), Northwest State Community College, Archbold, OH https://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=Northwest%20State%20Community%20College&l=Fulton%20County%2C%20OH&start=20&vjk=da9baa108639ab4b

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14. 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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15. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter

Join AAS Women List by email:

Send an email to aaswomen_at_aas.org. A list moderator will add your email to the list. They will reply to your message to confirm that they have added you.

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16. Access to Past Issues

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

Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.

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