Astronomy

AASWomen for June 21st, 2013

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of June 21, 2013
eds. Michele M. Montgomery, Daryl Haggard, and Nick Murphy

This week's issues:

1. Thank you Caroline!

2. This Week on the Women in Astronomy Blog

3. More on Men and Women in Astronomy

4. Gender bias in job postings

5. Becoming a STEM "Expert"

6. NASA's Newest Astronauts

7. Bechdel, Finkbeiner, Work-Life Balance, and sexism in Astronomy 101

8. Archetypes at Work

9. How Long Can You Wait to Have a Baby?

10. Soapbox Science

11. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter

12. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter

13. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

1. Thank you Caroline!
From: AASWomen Editors

Caroline Simpson is stepping down as AASWOMEN Executive Editor and Michele M. Montgomery will be taking the helm. AASWOMEN Newsletter editors past and present thank Caroline for her contributions to this newsletter and to the CSWA. We look forward to working with her again in the future and deeply appreciate her leadership toward this excellent weekly update for our community on the status of women in astronomy. (If you look closely at the newsletter below, you'll see her voice is still with us!) -Eds

2. This Week on the Women in Astronomy Blog
From: Contributors via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

[There are numerous excellent posts on the Women in Astronomy Blog this week. Head over there to read up on the titles below. -Eds]

** Career Profiles: Astronomer to Research Scientist in Genetics, an interview with Stephanie Gogarten by Laura Trouille

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2013/06/career-profiles-astronomer-to-research.html

** Menstrual Cycles by Jessica Kirkpatrick

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2013/06/menstrual-cycles.html

** ADVICE: When to Raise a Family by Joan Schmelz

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2013/06/advice-when-to-raise-family.html

** Scouting and Astronomy by Hannah Jang-Condell

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2013/06/scouting-and-astronomy.html

3. More on Men and Women in Astronomy
From: Daryl Haggard [dhaggard_at_northwestern.edu]

Rob Simpson has written a follow up to his post last week about men and women in astronomy:

http://orbitingfrog.com/2013/06/14/more-on-men-and-women-in-astronomy

The original is included as a guest post on the Women in Astronomy blog

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2013/06/guest-post-men-women-and-self-promotion.html

4. Gender bias in job postings
From: Caroline Simpson [simpsonc_at_fiu.edu]

This link was posted by Heidi Hammel on the Astronomers facebook page in response to Robert Simpson's blog post about lack of women volunteering to talk at the .Astronomy conference. There are several comments on the blog, and 22 on the Facebook page.

http://www.ere.net/2013/03/01/you-dont-know-it-but-women-see-gender-bias-in-your-job-postings

5. Becoming a STEM "Expert"
From: Caroline Simpson [simpsonc_at_fiu.edu]

This interview is with of one our graduate students at Florida International University, Idaykis Rodriguez. Her area of research is in physics education. She studied how students become 'experts' in their research communities.

Ask A Physicist: 5 Tips For Women In Science

Lilyvania Mikulski, the Assistant Director of the Office of Media Relations at Florida International University, interviewed Idaykis Rodriguez, a Ph.D. candidate in Physics at the university about what it means to be a woman in science. Their correspondence is as follows:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/19/the-traits-women-need-to-succeed-in-science_n_3416716.html

6. NASA's Newest Astronauts
From: Rick Fienberg [rick.fienberg_at_aas.org]

New Female Astronauts Show Evolution of Women in Space

Half of the newest astronauts are female, but that wasn't always the case.

To read more, please see

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/06/130618-space-female-astronauts-sally-ride-nasa-science

7. Bechdel, Finkbeiner, Work-Life Balance, and Sexism in Astronomy 101
From: Kelle Cruz [kellecruz_at_gmail.com] and Nick Murphy [namurphy_at_cfa.harvard.edu]

[Several additional posts on the Finkbeiner test, taken from Christie Aschwanden's DoubleXScience blog, were included in the March 8, 2013 AASWOMEN Newsletter and are linked again below. -Eds]

By Jason T Wright

There's been some increased interest on the internet lately about the Bechdel test for women appearing in film. The test comes from a comic strip in which a character explains that she only watches films that contain:

1. At least two female characters 2. That talk to *each other* 3. About something *other than a man*

Depressingly very few films pass this test, which is partly a testament to the lack of female protagonists in film (few supporting characters in film have any role except to talk about the protagonist) but mostly a statement about how few well-developed female characters there are in film at all.

To read more, please see

http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtw13/blogs/astrowright/2013/06/bechdel-finkbeiner-work-life-balance-and-sexism-in-astronomy-101.html

The above-mentioned AASWOMEN posts can be found here

http://www.doublexscience.org/the-finkbeiner-test

http://www.doublexscience.org/what-im-not-going-to-do

8. Archetypes at Work
From: Johanna Teske [jkteske_at_email.arizona.edu]

Mark Kuchner, of "Marketing for Scientists," writes about his conversation with the Women in Astrophysics group at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center about archetypes at work, and comes to some surprising (and unsurprising) conclusions regarding female astronomers' archetypes:

http://blogs.nature.com/soapboxscience/2013/06/19/caregiver-or-hero-which-one-are-you-the-archetypal-roles-of-women-in-science-and-academia

In an article that seems (to me) related, researchers at the Technische Universität München School of Management found that women displaying happiness are perceived as being less able and willing to lead.

Recommendation: Get an attitude and show pride in your ideas!

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/13/business/pride-vs-happiness-among-leaders

9. How Long Can You Wait to Have a Baby?
From: Caroline Simpson [simpsonc_at_fiu.edu]

In the July/August issue of The Atlantic, Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, discusses the surprising origin of the oft-repeated statement that female fertility begins to decline in the mid-to-late 20s.

"Deep anxiety about the ability to have children later in life plagues many women. But the decline in fertility over the course of a woman?s 30s has been oversold. Here?s what the statistics really tell us?and what they don't."

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/07/how-long-can-you-wait-to-have-a-baby/309374

10. Soapbox Science
From: Nancy Morrison [nmorris_at_utnet.utoledo.edu]

Soapbox Science (http://soapboxscience.org @SoapboxScience), a science communication group in the UK, is seeking career stories from women in science worldwide, particularly those who have left. They want to transform the stories into advice that could help retain women in research careers.

'It?s not difficult to work out that good advice and mentorship at the right time can make or break the success of early career female scientists. But like Emma, all too often they get the advice they need too late. Before they know it, they have become another statistic in the leaky pipe of gender inequality in science. There is not enough good research out there yet for us to know the key factors for why there are so few women in science, or what the solution is to improving the retention of women in science. ... The best advice for developing a water-tight strategy comes from those who have already surmounted the challenges that lie ahead.'

To read more:

http://soapboxscience.org/?p=272

11. 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.

12. 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.

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To join or leave AASWomen via web, or change your membership settings:

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Google Groups Subscribe Help:

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13. Access to Past Issues

http://www.aas.org/cswa/AASWOMEN.html

Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.

- Aaswomen For August 9, 2013
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- Aaswomen For July 5th, 2013
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- Aaswomen For June 7, 2013
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- Aaswomen For April 5, 2013
AAS Committee on the Status of Women Issue of April 5, 2013 eds. Caroline Simpson, Michele M. Montgomery, Daryl Haggard, and Nick Murphy This week's issues: 1. Sexual Harassment at Astronomical Observatories2. List of Women Astronomers3. Science Journalism...

- Aaswomen For February 22, 2013
AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy Issue of February 22, 2013 eds. Caroline Simpson, Michele Montgomery, Daryl Haggard, and Nick Murphy This week's issues: 1. STATUS newsletter for January 2013 now available online2. Annie Jump Cannon...

Astronomy