Astronomy

AASWOMEN Newsletter for September 26, 2014

AAS Committee on the Status of Women AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of September 26, 2014
eds: Daryl Haggard, Nicolle Zellner, Meredith Hughes, & Elysse Voyer

This week's issues:

1. From awareness to action

2. Blinded by my privilege

3. Diversity in Science: Where Are the Data?

4. Career Profiles: Astronomer to Defense Researcher

5. UN HeforShe

6. Watch out boys, women are getting smarter, faster

7. Sign-up to serve on a Climate for Women in Physics Site Visit Team

8. Students can now apply to attend the 2015 APS CUWiP

9. Thirty Meter Telescope US community survey

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. From awareness to action
From: Nancy Brickhouse [nbrickhouse_at_cfa.harvard.edu]

Here's a discussion with Anita Hill, Charles Ogletree, and others on the documentary "Anita." Anita Hill began the conversation on sexual harassment. Now she says it's time for consequences.

To read more, please see

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2014/09/from-awareness-to-action/?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=09.26.2014%20%281%29

2. Blinded by my privilege
From: John Johnson via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

[This is a repost of an essay from my personal blog, Mahalo.ne.Trash, where it has received 4400+ page views. Clearly it resonated. The topic of privilege has come up here quite a bit in the last year. A good definition from the AMSA (.docx) is as follows: "Privilege operates on personal, interpersonal, cultural, and institutional levels and gives advantages, favors, and benefits to members of dominant groups at the expense of members of target groups." Keys to privilege include a power differential between an ingroup and an outgroup. In astronomy, this typically means white, straight, male holding privilege over white women, women and men of color and those in the LGBT* communities. Another key is that privilege is often hidden from those who have it, and extremely obvious to those who lack it. Imagine a billionaire talking about how money and possessions don't matter to him and his family.]

I was recently talking with a female astronomer about diversity in astronomy. At one point, she said, "You don't know what it's like to be marginalized in your dept., to not have people listen to you and talk over you. To not give you the benefit of the doubt." Now, keep in mind that my conversation partner is white. I was a bit taken aback by her comment, and I blurted out, "You think I don't understand?! I am a Black man in America. At Harvard. In astronomy. There are of order 10 other Black people at my station in life. Until only recently I was rarely given the benefit of the doubt! I understand marginalization."

To read more, please see

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2014/09/blinded-by-my-privilege.html

3. Diversity in Science: Where Are the Data?
From: Daryl Haggard [dhaggard_at_amherst.edu]

[This article is from the In-Depth Report State of the World's Science 2014: http://www.scientificamerican.com/editorial/state-of-the-worlds-science-2014

by Fred Guterl

The number of people engaged in scientific research has been rising strongly. China reports a tripling of researchers between 1995 and 2008, with substantial growth currently; South Korea doubled the number of researchers between 1995 and 2006 and continues its upward swing. Even the U.S. and Europe have posted gains. The research workforce grew by 36 percent in the U.S. between 1995 and 2007 and by 65 percent in Europe between 1995 and 2010. Exceptions are Japan, which is flat, and Russia, which is down. When it comes to diversity, however, all we have are snapshots. Here are the best ones.

To read more, please see

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/diversity-in-science-where-are-the-data

4. Career Profiles: Astronomer to Defense Researcher
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 an astronomer turned researcher in defense. S/he notes that the job is quite similar to the type of work one would do in a theory postdoc. With a 40 hour work week and a flexible schedule, s/he finds personal life pretty well balanced with work life.

To read more, please see

http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2014/09/career-profiles-astronomer-to-defense.html

5. UN HeforShe
From: Matthew A. Greenhouse [matthew.a.greenhouse_at_nasa.gov]

Great speech by Emma Watson at the UN HeforShe event:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTG1zcEJmxY

HeForShe is a solidarity movement for gender equality that brings together one half of humanity in support of the other of humanity, for the entirety of humanity. You can endorse the effort by visiting

http://www.heforshe.org

6. Watch out boys, women are getting smarter, faster
From: Daryl Haggard [dhaggard_at_amherst.edu]

by Curt Rice

There are far fewer women than men working as professors in the natural sciences. To decide how we can change that, we need to know why it happens. In fact, to decide if we can change it, we need to know why it happens because if it reflects something innate, there might not be so much we can do.

New research adds important evidence to the debate about the cause of this imbalance. It shows us that women are getting smarter.

To read more, please see

http://www.theguardian.com/women-in-leadership/2014/sep/18/women-getting-smarter-science-professors

7. Sign-up to serve on a Climate for Women in Physics Site Visit Team
From: WIPHYS Posting for Sep 23, 2014

APS has had a long-standing interest in improving the climate in physics departments for underrepresented minorities and women. The Committee on the Status of Women in Physics (CSWP) sponsors a site visit program. Demand is high and more volunteers are needed to serve on teams. To have your name added to the "Willing to Serve" list provided to team leaders, please email your CV to women_at_aps.org.

Learn more about the Climate Visit program here

http://www.aps.org/programs/women/sitevisits

8. Students can now apply to attend the 2015 APS CUWiP
From: WIPHYS Posting for Sep 23, 2014

Applications to attend the 2015 APS Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP) are now being accepted. The deadline to apply is October 31, 2014.

To learn more about the application process, please see

http://www.aps.org/programs/women/workshops/cuwipapp.cfm

9. Thirty Meter Telescope US community survey
From: Kartik Sheth [astrokartik_at_gmail.com]
?
The US TMT Science Working Group (SWG) invites members of the community to fill out a short TMT US Community Survey. The SWG is helping to develop a plan for possible future NSF participation in TMT and SWG would like your input on how you would use TMT for your research, and on the instrumentation, operations, time allocation, and data management issues you view as most important to maximize the scientific return of TMT. Filling out this survey will help inform the SWG's discussions and its report to the NSF.

Please respond by Monday, 6 October 2014.

TMT background information and FAQs are available here

http://ast.noao.edu/system/us-tmt-liaison/survey-faq

If you have additional questions or comments, please write to the US TMT SWG at tmt_at_noao.edu.

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

* Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University - Assistant Professor - Postdocs and Fellowships - LSST Software Position - Postdoc with Hyper Suprime-Cam

http://www.princeton.edu/astro/resources/job/jo/index.xml

* Faculty Opening, Experimental Physics / Space Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis

11. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter

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12. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter

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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.

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Astronomy