Astronomy
At the AAS meeting in Indianapolis, IN in June 2013, the AAS Council approved a proposal by CSWA to implement Climate Site Visits for astronomy departments. These site visits are modeled on the highly successful visits done by the Committee on the Status of Women in Physics (CSWP) for physics departments. The CSWP index, procedures, and summary web pages formed the basis for the CSWA proposal. Among the positive outcomes of the CSWP visits are:
Among the problems that have come to the attention of the CSWA in US institutions are: (1) inadequate mentoring of members of underrepresented groups; (2) instances of sexual harassment; (3) the continued pervasiveness of unconscious bias and other issues affecting the climate for women; and (4) too-slow advancement of women, especially women of color, through the ranks of the profession.
- Aaswomen January 17, 2014
AAS Committee on the Status of Women AAS Committee on the Status of Women Issue of January 17, 2014 eds. Michele M. Montgomery, Daryl Haggard, Nick Murphy, & Nicolle Zellner SPECIAL EDITION: CSWA Climate Site Visit Program for Astronomy Departments...
- Cswa Climate Site Visit Program For Astronomy Departments - A Department Chair's Perspective
In 2009, the MIT Physics Department hosted a Climate Site Visit for Women and Minorities from the APS Committee on the Status of Women in Physics and Committee on Minorities. As a relatively new department head with interest in improving the status...
- Cswa Climate Site Visit Program For Astronomy Departments - Benefits
As a graduate student, I participated in a Committee on the Status of Women in Physics (CSWP) joint site visit of the physics departments at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs and University of California, Berkeley. The site visit was very valuable...
- Cswa Climate Site Visit Program For Astronomy Departments - Procedure
CSWA Climate Site Visits for Astronomy Departments will be initiated by an invitation from the department chair and will ordinarily last one day. The CSWA chair and the department chair will decide upon a convenient date for the visit. The CSWA chair...
- Site Visits
Do you think your department could use an external review of its climate for women? The American Physical Society (APS) has a whole program set up for conducting site visits. There's also a similar program directed toward the climate for minorites....
Astronomy
CSWA Climate Site Visit Program for Astronomy Departments - Policy
At the AAS meeting in Indianapolis, IN in June 2013, the AAS Council approved a proposal by CSWA to implement Climate Site Visits for astronomy departments. These site visits are modeled on the highly successful visits done by the Committee on the Status of Women in Physics (CSWP) for physics departments. The CSWP index, procedures, and summary web pages formed the basis for the CSWA proposal. Among the positive outcomes of the CSWP visits are:
- Increased efforts to recruit women faculty members;
- Increased efforts to recruit women graduate students;
- Improved communications between women and department chairs;
- Increased numbers of invitations to women speakers;
- Improved safety of the department;
- Improved facilities for students: lounges, computers;
- Improved advising and mentoring.
Among the problems that have come to the attention of the CSWA in US institutions are: (1) inadequate mentoring of members of underrepresented groups; (2) instances of sexual harassment; (3) the continued pervasiveness of unconscious bias and other issues affecting the climate for women; and (4) too-slow advancement of women, especially women of color, through the ranks of the profession.
Indeed, the proposed CSWA Climate Site Visits for astronomy departments will suggests ways the departments can:
- Enable senior faculty in those departments to provide better mentoring for students, postdocs, and junior faculty;
- Enable the visiting team to assist with mentoring the students, postdocs, and junior faculty in those departments;
- Improve the teaching of diverse audiences in those departments;
- Promote the knowledge and practice of professional ethics to the next generation of astronomers and to their mentors;
- Provide advice on how to recruit and retain a more diverse group of students and faculty.
Additional Information:
- CSWA Climate Site Visit Program Policy and Procedure;
- APS CSWP Climate for Women in Physics Site Visit Programby Susan Blessing & Deanna Ratnikova, 2013 April 23, Women is Astronomy Blogspot;
- Affecting the Climate for Women in Physics: The CSWP Site Visit Program by Meg Urry, 2007 June, STATUS magazine.
- Aaswomen January 17, 2014
AAS Committee on the Status of Women AAS Committee on the Status of Women Issue of January 17, 2014 eds. Michele M. Montgomery, Daryl Haggard, Nick Murphy, & Nicolle Zellner SPECIAL EDITION: CSWA Climate Site Visit Program for Astronomy Departments...
- Cswa Climate Site Visit Program For Astronomy Departments - A Department Chair's Perspective
In 2009, the MIT Physics Department hosted a Climate Site Visit for Women and Minorities from the APS Committee on the Status of Women in Physics and Committee on Minorities. As a relatively new department head with interest in improving the status...
- Cswa Climate Site Visit Program For Astronomy Departments - Benefits
As a graduate student, I participated in a Committee on the Status of Women in Physics (CSWP) joint site visit of the physics departments at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs and University of California, Berkeley. The site visit was very valuable...
- Cswa Climate Site Visit Program For Astronomy Departments - Procedure
CSWA Climate Site Visits for Astronomy Departments will be initiated by an invitation from the department chair and will ordinarily last one day. The CSWA chair and the department chair will decide upon a convenient date for the visit. The CSWA chair...
- Site Visits
Do you think your department could use an external review of its climate for women? The American Physical Society (APS) has a whole program set up for conducting site visits. There's also a similar program directed toward the climate for minorites....