Friday, November 8, 2019

AASWomen Newsletter for November 08, 2019

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of November 08, 2019
eds: JoEllen McBride, Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Maria Patterson, and Alessandra Aloisi

This week's issues:

1. Physics and Astronomy STEM Equality Achievement (SEA) Change Department Awards

2. National Academies Issue Recommendations on Mentoring to Improve Diversity & Inclusion

3. Dual-Anonymous Peer Review for Astrophysics General Observer / General Investigator Programs

4. A sociological study of gender and astronomy in Spain

5. In decision certain to draw fire, journal will publish heavily criticized paper on gender differences in physics

6. Being a Working Parent is Complicated — Supporting Working Families Shouldn’t Be

7. Careers and controversy before the First World War

8. The women who cracked science’s glass ceiling

9. Job Opportunities

10. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

11. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

12. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter


1. Physics and Astronomy STEM Equality Achievement (SEA) Change Department Awards
From: Regina Jorgenson via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

By Arlene Modeste Knowles and Beth A. Cunningham

Over the last two years, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has developed the STEM Equity Achievement (SEA) Change Project which supports systemic, structural institutional transformation around diversity and inclusion in colleges and universities. It does so by encouraging, assisting and recognizing academic institutions that commit to and engage in the difficult work of removing structural barriers to success for women, blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, people with disabilities, and others who are marginalized in STEM fields. In the SEA Change process, inclusion, and its valuable impacts, are measured by the experiences of students and faculty, as well as by data. The SEA Change Principles can be found here: https://seachange.aaas.org/principles Three universities were the first recipients of SEA Change bronze awards in February 2019: Boston University, University of California, Davis, and University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Read more at

https://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2019/11/physics-and-astronomy-stem-equality.html

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2. National Academies Issue Recommendations on Mentoring to Improve Diversity & Inclusion
From: AAS News Digest [news_at_aas.org]

By Richard Fienberg

“US colleges and universities should take a more intentional, inclusive, and evidence-based approach to mentoring students in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine) — a shift that could engage and help retain a broader group of students in these fields, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.”

Read more at

https://aas.org/posts/news/2019/10/national-academies-issue-recommendations-mentoring-improve-diversity-inclusion

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3. Dual-Anonymous Peer Review for Astrophysics General Observer / General Investigator Programs
From: Pat Knezek [patricia.m.knezek_at_nasa.gov]

NASA has released a timetable for implementing dual-anonymous peer review for their Astrophysics General Observer and General Investigator Programs.

Read the press release at

https://smd-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/science-pink/s3fs-public/atoms/files/Dual-Anonymous_Peer_Review_for_Astrophysics_GOGI_programs.pdf

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4. A sociological study of gender and astronomy in Spain
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com] and Maria Patterson [maria.t.patterson_at_gmail.com]

By Pérez Sedeño, Eulalia; Kiczkowski, Adriana; Márquez, Isabel

“The under-representation of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics has been an issue of great concern within the European scientific community and beyond. To initiate actions that will alleviate this deficiency, it is important to understand the reasons behind it. This Perspective highlights the results of our research into the situation of women in the field of astronomy and astrophysics in Spain, which was first published in Spanish in 2010. In that study, we first summarized the situation of women astronomers in Spain on the basis of statistical data obtained from the most relevant Spanish institutions. Then we combined in-depth interviews with teaching staff and researchers that took place at the same time as the statistical survey. We also interviewed groups of PhD candidates and post-doctoral researchers to explore potential trends. Here we update the quantitative aspects of this analysis with more recent data from 2016, and present action plans already in place or recently proposed to improve the situation of women astronomers in Spain. We make this information available to the international astronomical community as motivation for further studies.”

Read more at

https://digital.csic.es/handle/10261/175746

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5. In decision certain to draw fire, journal will publish heavily criticized paper on gender differences in physics
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]

By Dalmeet Singh Chawla

"In a move likely to attract criticism, a peer-reviewed journal has agreed to publish an Italian physicist’s highly contested analysis of publications, which concludes that female physicists don’t face more career obstacles than their male colleagues. The journal says it will also simultaneously publish critiques of the paper, which one member of the journal’s editorial board says is “flawed” and contains “unsubstantiated claims.”"

Read more at

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/11/decision-certain-draw-fire-journal-will-publish-heavily-criticized-paper-gender

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6.Being a Working Parent is Complicated — Supporting Working Families Shouldn’t Be
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]

By Cristina Tcheyan

"Earlier this year, I made the difficult decision to step back from my career to spend more time with my family. A year prior, with the normal mix of apprehension and excitement, I returned to work after my second maternity leave. My employer granted 20 weeks of paid maternity leave, as well as two weeks of ramp-back time during which I could work part-time and earn full-time pay. My husband also received paid leave time to bond with and care for our newborn. Our family was incredibly fortunate to receive these benefits, especially in a country that doesn’t have universal coverage.

And yet, after our leaves ended, we struggled."

Read more at

https://medium.com/apparently/being-a-working-parent-is-complicated-supporting-working-families-shouldnt-be-84c017744df8

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7. Careers and controversy before the First World War
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]

By Claire Jones

"In its 150 years of existence, Nature has witnessed the emergence of science as a profession. But as research moved from a domestic to an institutional setting, women became increasingly invisible, and the historical narrative became resolutely male.

I aim to redress the balance by identifying the barriers that women faced and how they worked around them, gaining access to scientific education and chipping away at societies, journals and universities. Gradually, they widened the corridors of power for those who followed."

Read more at

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03361-2

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8. The women who cracked science’s glass ceiling
From: JoEllen McBride [joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com]

By Sally Horrocks

"Scientific career opportunities saw a boost during the First World War as a result of the realignment of science to the military. For the first time, scientists worked on problems ranging from aviation and submarine detection to chemical warfare. After the war, this expansion continued, particularly in industry. Biochemist Kathleen Culhane Lathbury was one female scientist who benefited from that. During the 1920s and early 1930s, she worked for British Drug Houses, one of the leading pharmaceutical firms in the United Kingdom, which I focus on here. In her post, Lathbury oversaw insulin manufacturing."

Read more at

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03362-1

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9. 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

-NSF Supported Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Solar Physics and Astro-informatics at Georgia State University
http://www.astro.gsu.edu/~martens/FDSS/NSF%20Funded%20Tenure-v2.pdf

-McGill Space Institute Postdoctoral Fellowships
https://msi.mcgill.ca/index.php?page=employment-opportunities-and-fellowships

-Postdoctoral Fellowships in Astrophysics at McGill University
https://msi.mcgill.ca/index.php?page=employment-opportunities-and-fellowships

-Software developer position working with LSST Data Management at UW Seattle
https://uwhires.admin.washington.edu/ENG/candidates/default.cfm?szCategory=jobprofile&szOrderID=173145&szCandidateID=0&szSearchWords=&szReturnToSearch=1

Postdoctoral Researcher with the MAVEN Imaging UltraViolet Spectrograph Team
https://jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/jobDetail?jobId=21086

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10. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter

To submit an item to the AASWOMEN newsletter, including replies to topics, send email to aaswomen_at_lists.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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11. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter

Join AAS Women List by email:

Send an email to aaswomen_at_lists.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.

Join AAS Women List through the online portal:

Go to https://lists.aas.org/postorius/lists/aaswlist.lists.aas.org and enter the email address you wish to subscribe in the ‘Your email address’ field. You will receive an email from ‘aaswlist-confirm’ that you must reply to. There may be a delay between entering your email and receiving the confirmation message. Check your Spam or Junk mail folders for the message if you have not received it after 2 hours.

To unsubscribe from AAS Women by email:

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Leave AAS Women or change your membership settings through the online portal:

Go to https://lists.aas.org/accounts/signup to create an account with the online portal. After confirming your account you can see the lists you are subscribed to and update your settings.

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12. Access to Past Issues

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

Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.

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