AASWOMEN Newsletter for April 17, 2015
Issue of April 17, 2015
eds: Daryl Haggard, Nicolle Zellner, Meredith Hughes, & Elysse Voyer
This week's issues:
1. CSWA Success Stories and Future Challenges
2. New Study Demonstrates Shocking Truth About Faculty Hiring
3. The Myth About Women in Science? Bias in the Study of Gender Inequality in STEM
4. Scientists question representation of women in international journal
5. Women on 20s
6. Spring 2015 edition of AWIS Magazine
7. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
8. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
9. Access to Past Issues
1. CSWA Success Stories and Future Challenges
From: Joan Schmelz via http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
Recent data on demographics and conversations with my NSF colleague, Lisa Frehill, opened my eyes to a somewhat surprising fact. Young women in astronomy (assistant professors, postdocs, students) from some racial and ethnic backgrounds (white and Asian) may have reached parity with their percentages in the US population!
The STATUS magazine article, the 2013 CSWA Demographics Survey, was open on my computer screen. In particular, Figure 1 shows that percentages of women at the level of assistant professor and younger are about 30% (within uncertainties). These percentages are similar to those described in the article, The 30% Benchmark: Women in Astronomy Postdocs at US Institutions.
To read more, please see
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2015/04/cswa-success-stories-and-future.html
Back to top.2. New Study Demonstrates Shocking Truth About Faculty Hiring
From: David Charbonneau via http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
[See also the next contribution about this controversial article. -Eds]
(*) In a paper just published in PNAS, Cornell professors W. M. Williams and S. J. Ceci have demonstrated conclusively that the process that all university departments use to hire new faculty is completely unrelated to the actual process they modeled in their study of fictitious faculty searches.
To read more, please see
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2015/04/new-study-demonstrates-shocking-truth.html
Back to top.3. The Myth About Women in Science? Bias in the Study of Gender Inequality in STEM
From: Stella Offner <soffner_at_astro.umass.edu>
You've probably already heard about a new study showing women and men are likely to be equally hired in academia -- gender bias solved!
Here is a very nice rebuttal to that study, which details caveats with their approach:
The Myth About Women in Science? Bias in the Study of Gender Inequality in STEM
by Dr. Zuleyka Zevallos
A new article on CNN by psychology professors, Wendy Williams and Stephen Ceci, boldly proclaims that gender bias in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) is a myth. Their research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Unfortunately, their work has a flawed methodological premise and their conclusions do not match their study design. This is not the first time these researchers have whipped up false controversy by decrying the end of sexism in science.
http://othersociologist.com/2015/04/16/myth-about-women-in-science
Back to top.4. Scientists question representation of women in international journal
From: Nicolle Zellner <nzellner_at_albion.edu>
Cognition, a highly regarded scientific journal that publishes theoretical and experimental papers on the study of the mind recently published an special issue titled "The Changing Face of Cognition". Among the 19 invited contributing authors listed for the 12 articles, only one female author was present.
Roberta Klatzky, Lori Holt and Marlene Behrmann, leading cognitive scientists from Carnegie Mellon University, have written an opinion piece about this issue, to appear in a future issue of Cognition.
Read the story at
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-04-scientists-representation-women-international-journal.html
Back to top.5. Women on 20s
From: Jill Tarter <tarter_at_seti.org>
[About the project:] We at Women on 20s applaud President Obama for acknowledging that it's time to put a woman's face on our paper currency. In fact, for almost a year we've been plotting to petition him to do just that. It struck us, for instance, that most Americans today have no idea that there was another woman behind Susan B. Anthony -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton -- who was instrumental in ensuring the rights that women enjoy today.
We have already recorded nearly a half a million ballots seeking a woman's portrait on the $20 bill. It is now within our sights to present President Obama with an even more powerful mandate ? a million or more votes for historic change.
For more information or to vote, check out
www.womenon20s.org
Back to top.6. Spring 2015 edition of AWIS Magazine
From: Daryl Haggard [dhaggard_at_amherst.edu]
[AWIS subscription required to access Spring 2015 issue. -Eds]
In this issue, we examine the topic of leadership and how it relates to women in the STEM fields. We asked AWIS members how they define leadership and interviewed the first woman Chancellor of the University of California-Davis, Dr. Linda Katehi.
To read more, please see
https://awis.site-ym.com/?AWISMagazine1
Back to top.7. 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.
Back to top.8. 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.
Be sure to follow the instructions in the confirmation email. (Just reply back to the email list)
To unsubscribe by email:
Send email to aawlist+unsubscribe_at_aas.org from the address you want to have UNsubscribed. You can leave the subject and message blank if you like.
To join or leave AASWomen via web, or change your membership settings:
https://groups.google.com/a/aas.org/group/aaswlist
You will have to create a Google Account if you do not already have one, using https://accounts.google.com/newaccount?hl=en
Google Groups Subscribe Help:
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Back to top.9. Access to Past Issues
http://www.aas.org/cswa/AASWOMEN.html
Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.
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