Taking Over the Reins of the Women in Astronomy Blog

In the month of June, some of the members of the Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy (CSWA) will be finishing their terms. This includes our Blogger-in-Chief, Cristina Thomas. Cristina served both as Blogger-in-Chief of the Women in Astronomy Blog and on the CSWA since 2016. She's done an amazing job highlighting news from the field that concerns astronomers who identify as women. We wish her all the best on her next endeavors.

Starting this week, I will be taking the reins from Cristina and posting weekly to the Women in Astronomy Blog. My name is JoEllen McBride and I am a CSWA member, avid science communicator, and partial astrophysicist. I communicate science in many ways, from writing blogs and news articles to giving talks to running workshops. I am thrilled to be continuing Cristina's work and taking on some of the new ideas we've discussed.

Among the first things I'd like to do is roll out exit interviews with the CSWA members that are stepping down. Hopefully, this will give our readers a better idea of what we do as a Committee (besides keeping up with the Blog). It's a brilliant idea of Cristina's and I'm excited to take this on! I also plan on bringing back the 'Meet Your CSWA' posts highlighting the remaining and incoming CSWA members. Finally, I am hoping to start a series that highlights the different paths we take on our journey to become astronomers. These diverse stories will highlight the many ways to become an astronomer as well as the various jobs you can do with the skills you learn. For example, I currently work for Penn Medicine Development and Alumni Relations as a Communications and Stewardship writer and know many astronomers who became data scientists or programmers for online courses and animation studios.

So, if you or someone you know has an interesting career path or you have ideas you want to share with our community that pertain to women in astronomy please reach out to joellen.mcbride_at_gmail.com.

AASWomen Newsletter for May 17, 2019

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of May 17, 2019
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, 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, and we continue to work on developing new instructions. Please follow us on social media for updates and bear with us as we work out all the kinks. Twitter: @AAS_Women, Facebook: https://bit.ly/2PkU9of

Director Lori Glaze; Image Credit: NASA, from item 4

This week's issues:

1. Cross-post: Summary from the WiPS Networking event at LPSC 2019

2. Reflections on Ethics at the AAS

3. Modern Women in STEM Book Project

4. Women are now in charge of NASA's science missions

5. NASA’s initiative to put a woman on the Moon is named Artemis, after Apollo’s twin sister

6. Women in Kyrgyzstan are fighting sexism by joining the space race

7. How the creators of a database are stamping out all-male panels

8. Calling attention to gender bias dramatically changes course evaluations

9. Commentary: The problematic media portrayals of women in science

10. Women gifted in math are still less likely than men to pursue it

11. Lawsuit Alleges Age, Race, Sex Discrimination At Mount Sinai Med School

12. 'I Don’t Want to Stay in a Country That Doesn’t Want Me As Badly as I Want It'

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

Cross-post: Summary from the WiPS Networking event at LPSC 2019

Panelists at the WiPS LPSC Networking Event

The Women in Planetary Science (WiPS) event at LPSC (Lunary and Planetary Science Conference) in March commemorated the 50th LPSC by celebrating women scientists who have been in planetary science since the Apollo Era.

Read more about the event in a recent Women in Planetary Science blog post by Dr. Rajani Dhingra:

https://womeninplanetaryscience.wordpress.com/2019/05/12/summary-from-the-wips-networking-event-at-lpsc-2019/

AASWomen Newsletter for May 10, 2019

Hubble Legacy Field. Credit: NASA/ESA

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.]
@AAS_Women Facebook

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

Cross-post: Female scientists start a database to showcase their work. Over 9,000 women join them.

Credit: 500 Women Scientists

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

https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/living/story/female-scientists-start-database-showcase-work-9000-women-62781410

Articles about this database have also appeared on phys.org, The Business Journals, STAT, and The Scientist.

AASWomen Newsletter for May 3, 2019

AAS Committee on the Status of Women

Issue of May 3, 2019

eds: Nicolle Zellner, Heather Flewelling, Maria Patterson, and JoEllen McBride

[We have migrated the newsletter to a new mailing system. We thank you for your patience as we work through the issues. Please check your spam folder if you did not receive the newsletter this week. We continue to work on developing new instructions for subscribing and unsubscribing. --eds.]


This week's issues:

1. Cross-post: In lopsided vote, U.S. science academy backs move to eject sexual harassers
2. National Academy of Sciences … Historic Number of Women Elected to Its Membership
3. An Engineering School With Half of Its Leadership Female? How Did That Happen?
4. Why scientist-mums in the United States need better parental-support policies 
5. Male researchers’ ‘vague’ language more likely to win grants 
6. Maria Kirch was the first woman to discover a comet, but her husband took the credit
7. Seven ways scientists handle technology challenges in resource-poor settings 
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

Cross-post: In lopsided vote, U.S. science academy backs move to eject sexual harassers

U.S. National Academies of Sciences

"Breaking with their 156-year history, members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) today voted overwhelmingly in favor of amending the elite organization’s bylaws to allow ejection of members who breach the group’s new Code of Conduct, which outlines offenses including sexual harassment. Historically, membership in NAS has been an honor conferred for life." In a recent article in Science, Meredith Wadman discussed the vote which occurred this week at the NAS's annual business meeting. This vote only polled those who attended the meeting and is not final. All academy members will be given the opportunity to vote in the coming months.

Read more about the background of this change and the happenings of the meeting here:

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/04/lopsided-vote-us-science-academy-backs-move-eject-sexual-harassers

Many others have covered this story including Nature and The Verge.