AASWOMEN Newsletter for September 19, 2014
Issue of September 19, 2014
eds: Daryl Haggard, Nicolle Zellner, Meredith Hughes, & Elysse Voyer
This week's issues:
1. Gender Bias in Guest Observer Programs
2. Career Profiles: Astronomer to Associate Director of the NASA Lunar Science Institute
3. Study Shows Few Male Scientists are Involved Dads
4. Career Profiles: Astronomer to Chief of the Nautical Almanac Office
5. Hertz Fellows
6. Article on Gender Quotas from the New Republic
7. What My Bike Has Taught Me about White Privilege
8. DPS WIPS Lunch 2014
9. Astronomy Ambassadors Workshop for Early-Career AAS Members
10. Job Opportunities
11. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter
12. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter
13. Access to Past Issues
1. Gender Bias in Guest Observer Programs
From: Neil Gehrels via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
A recent paper on arXiv (1409.3528) by I. Neill Reid at STScI is an eye-opener. It presents a detailed study of gender bias in HST guest observer selection. The results are very clear: female PIs are systematically less successful in winning HST observing time than their male colleagues.
Read more at
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2014/09/gender-bias-in-guest-observer-programs.html
Back to top.2. Career Profiles: Astronomer to Associate Director of the NASA Lunar Science Institute
From: Laura Trouille via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.
Below is our interview with Doris Daou, an astronomer turned Associate Director of the NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute. If you have questions, suggestions, advice to share, etc. about this career path, please leave a comment below.
Read more at
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2014/09/career-profiles-astronomer-to-associate.html
Back to top.3. Study Shows Few Male Scientists are Involved Dads
From: Jessica Kirkpatrick via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
Reproduced from this Washington Post article by Brigid Schulte
For years, people have been puzzling over why there are so few women in science, technology, engineering and math, and why the university professors who teach the subjects are predominantly men. Is it genetics? Preference? Caregiving responsibilities? An unwelcoming environment?
Turns out, according to a new study released Thursday on men in academic science, it may have a lot to do with the boss.
The majority of tenured full professors at some of the most prestigious universities in the country, who have the most power to hire and fire and set the workplace expectation of long hours, are men who have either a full-time spouse at home who handles all caregiving and home duties, or a spouse with a part-time or secondary career who takes primary responsibility for the home.
Read more at:
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2014/09/study-shows-few-male-scientists-are.html
Back to top.4. Career Profiles: Astronomer to Chief of the Nautical Almanac Office
From: Laura Trouille via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com
The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy and the AAS Employment Committee have compiled dozens of interviews highlighting the diversity of career trajectories available to astronomers. The interviews share advice and lessons learned from individuals on those paths.
Below is our interview with Sethanne Howard, an astronomer turned Chief of the Nautical Almanac Office at the US Naval Observatory. If you have questions, suggestions, advice to share, etc. about this career path, please leave a comment below.
Read more at:
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2014/09/career-profiles-astronomer-to-chief-of.html
Back to top.5. Hertz Fellows
From: John Mather [john.c.mather_at_nasa.gov]
A day to celebrate: 8 of the 15 new Hertz Foundation fellows are women! All of these young people are amazing.
https://www.hertzfoundation.org/dx/fellows/fellows_new.aspx
Back to top.6. Article on Gender Quotas from the New Republic
From: Meg Urry [met.urry_at_yale.edu]
by Alice Lee
Gender equity in the corporate world has long been a goal that?s paid much lip service, but has nothing to enforce it but good intentions. Unsatisfied with the slow progress, a handful of countries have, over the last ten years, embraced the idea of gender quotas to govern corporate boards (a potential solution to inequality Bryce Covert suggested in a piece for The New Republic this summer). According to the 2014 International Business Report, the percentage of world business leaders in favor of gender quotas has increased from 37 percent in 2013 to 45 percent in 2014. And it isn?t just in Europe, where the quota trend began. 68 percent of leaders surveyed in Latin American and 71 percent of those in Asia Pacific (not including Japan) supported gender quotas.
Read more at:
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119343/impact-quotas-corporate-gender-equality
Back to top.7. What My Bike Has Taught Me about White Privilege
From: Jillian Bellovary [jillian.bellovary_at_gmail.com]
by jdowsett
The phrase ?white privilege? is one that rubs a lot of white people the wrong way. It can trigger something in them that shuts down conversation or at least makes them very defensive. (Especially those who grew up relatively less privileged than other folks around them). And I?ve seen more than once where this happens and the next move in the conversation is for the person who brought up white privilege to say, ?The reason you?re getting defensive is because you?re feeling the discomfort of having your privilege exposed.?
I?m sure that?s true sometimes. And I?m sure there are a lot of people, white and otherwise, who can attest to a kind of a-ha moment or paradigm shift where they ?got? what privilege means and they did realize they had been getting defensive because they were uncomfortable at having their privilege exposed. But I would guess that more often than not, the frustration and the shutting down is about something else. It comes from the fact that nobody wants to be a racist. And the move ?you only think that because you?re looking at this from the perspective of privilege? or the more terse and confrontational ?check your privilege!? kind of sound like an accusation that someone is a racist (if they don?t already understand privilege). And the phrase ?white privilege? kind of sounds like, ?You are a racist and there?s nothing you can do about it because you were born that way.?
Read more at:
http://alittlemoresauce.com/2014/08/20/what-my-bike-has-taught-me-about-white-privilege
Back to top.8. DPS WIPS Lunch 2014
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]
Join us for an informal meeting and discussion hour over lunch on Tuesday, November 11th from 12:00-1:30. This year?s topics will revolve around the ideas of powerful communication and how to be an ally to minority community members. We will have presentation material interspersed with plenty of discussion time. Please feel free to bring any information/announcements related to women in astronomy and planetary science to share.
More information is available here:
http://womeninplanetaryscience.wordpress.com/2014/09/14/dps-wips-lunch-2014-register-by-october-15th
Back to top.9. Astronomy Ambassadors Workshop for Early-Career AAS Members
From: Rick Fienberg [rick.feinberg_at_aas.org]
The AAS Astronomy Ambassadors program supports early-career AAS members with training in resources and techniques for effective outreach to K-12 students, families, and the public: http://aas.org/outreach/aas-astronomy-ambassadors-program
The next AAS Astronomy Ambassadors workshop will be held 3-4 January 2015 at the 225th AAS meeting in Seattle, Washington. The number of participants is limited. We will have sessions appropriate for both those who have done some outreach already and those just starting their outreach adventures, and we especially encourage applications from members of groups that are presently underrepresented in science. If interested, please complete the online application form by 20 October 2014.
More workshop information:
http://aas.org/meetings/aas225/aas-astronomy-ambassadors-workshop
Online application:
http://aas.org/content/aas-astronomy-ambassadors-program-2015-application
Back to top.10. Job Opportunities
For those interested in increasing excellence and diversity in their organizations, a list of resources and advice is here:
http://www.aas.org/cswa/diversity.html#howtoincrease
KICP Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Opportunity 2015
http://kicp-fellowship.uchicago.edu
Faculty Position in Astrophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/4554
Back to top.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.
Back to top.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 unsubscribe by email:
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To join or leave AASWomen via web, or change your membership settings:
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Back to top.13. Access to Past Issues
http://www.aas.org/cswa/AASWOMEN.html
Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.
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