AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of May 18, 2007
eds. Joan Schmelz, Geoffrey Clayton, & Hannah Jang-Condell
This week's issues:
1. Hawaii AAS Meeting: Women of Solar Physics (2nd Announcement)
2. Hawaii AAS Meeting: Sexual Harassment (2nd Announcement)
3. Mercury 13
4. More on Moore
5. Marie Goeppert Mayer Award
6. How to submit, subscribe, or unsubscribe to AASWOMEN (New!)
[Eds. note: Please be patient as the AAS switches servers and AASWOMEN
experiences some adjustment glitches.]
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1. Hawaii AAS Meeting: Women of Solar Physics (2nd Announcement)
From: Joan Schmelz (jschmelz
memphis.edu)
CSWA invites those of you who will be attending the AAS meeting in
Hawaii to a special session on Thursday morning, May 31 at 10 am. The
consecutive SPD and AAS meetings provide an opportunity to highlight
women astronomers in the field of solar physics. The session will focus
on status and science. It will include an introduction and brief history
of women in solar physics and a snapshot of their current statistics
within the field. This will be followed by science talks.
Speakers include:
-- Women of the Solar Physics Division
Andrea Dupree (CfA)
-- Following the Trail of Heavy Ions through the Solar Corona and into
the Solar Wind
Shadia Habbal (University of Hawaii)
-- A Solar Cycle Prediction Puzzle's Possible Explanation?
Janet Luhmann (UC Berkeley)
-- Are Inputs to Standard Solar Models Correct?
Sarbani Basu (Yale University)
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2. Hawaii AAS Meeting: Sexual Harassment (2nd Announcement)
From: Joan Schmelz (jschmelzmemphis.edu)
Have you been the victim of sexual harassment? Do you know someone who
has? What advice would you give to a friend who has had such an
experience? A CSWA special session at the AAS meeting in Hawaii will
focus on these issues. The session is scheduled for Thursday afternoon,
May 31 at 12:45 pm.
CSWA would like to start this session with a series of personal
anecdotes from the audience. Would anyone be willing to share a
harassment experience? If you would like to remain anonymous, you can
e-mail us an account of the incident and we will read it, or you can ask
a friend or colleague to read the account for you. We will then solicit
suggestions from the audience on how an individual might avoid the
incident altogether, handle it in real time, or deal with the
consequences once it has happened. We hope to come up with advice that
we can distribute to a wider audience in future issues of AASWOMEN.
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3. Mercury 13
From: Andrea Schweitzer [schweitzfrii.com]
Kudos to University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and to Adler Planetarium for
giving these women the recognition they deserve!
Female pilots reached for the stars
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/05/14/mercury.women.profile/index.html
"On Saturday, the 'Mercury 13' women received honorary Doctor of Science
degrees from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh at its commencement."
"While the Mercury 13 did not get their shot at space -- at least not
yet -- they refused to let someone else trim their dreams. They fought
for what they wanted, what they believed in, and spoke out against
discrimination," said keynote speaker Martha Ackmann, author of "The
Mercury 13: The Untold Story of Thirteen American Women and the Dream of
Space Flight."
"Recognition has been slow in coming, but in recent years the women have
been honored by the Adler Planetarium, ..."
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4. More on Moore
From: Karen Kwitter [Karen.B.Kwitterwilliams.edu]
This is regarding Andrea Schweitzer's submission (5/11) about Sir
Patrick Moore's apparent misogyny (How Women are Ruining the BBC). Not
surprisingly, it has long been evident in Moore's own work. In 1992 I
was asked to review several of his elementary-school-level books for
Science Books & Films. It was a shock to see how sexist his writing was,
and upsetting that these books were aimed at young children. I am doubly
sorry that he has not seen the error of his ways even now. Here is the
last paragraph from my 1992 review:
I am sorry to have to report that these books are far from
gender-neutral. There are a few instances of "boys and girls" and "men
and women" and "people"; however, in many more instances the author uses
"men." (I am not even considering absolutely true uses of "men" as in
discussions of astronauts who have been to the moon, or astronauts
aboard Skylab.) Whenever hypothetical characters like an astronaut or a
student are introduced, they are always male. In addition, every
specific person mentioned is male. Harlow Shapley is mentioned in a
discussion of Cepheids describing the period-luminosity relation --
Henrietta Leavitt is not. The discovery of pulsars is discussed, but
Jocelyn Bell is not mentioned. The Space Shuttle is described, but Sally
Ride is not mentioned, nor is Valentina Tereshkova mentioned in the
discussion of Soviet cosmonauts (though Yuri Gagarin is mentioned
several times). It is particularly regrettable that this lack of
appropriate gender-neutrality and omission of important contributions by
women occurs in books for children. I hope that the author will rectify
the situation in future editions of these otherwise fine books.
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5. Marie Goeppert Mayer Award
From: WIPHYS May 14, 2007
Nominations are being solicited for the Marie Goeppert Mayer Award. The
purpose of the award is "to recognize and enhance outstanding
achievement by a woman physicist in the early years of her career, and
to provide opportunities for her to present these achievements to others
through public lectures in the spirit of Maria Goeppert Mayer. The award
consists of $2,500 plus a $4,000 travel allowance to provide
opportunities for the recipient to give lectures in her field of physics
at four institutions and at the meeting of the Society at which the
award is bestowed and a certificate citing the contributions made by the
recipient. The award will be presented annually."
The award was established through sponsorship in 1985 by the General
Electric Foundation (now the GE Fund). The deadline for submission of
nominations for the 2008 prize is July 1, 2007.
Five (5) copies of nominations and supporting documentation for the 2008
Prize should be sent to the Chair of the 2008 Selection Committee:
Marc Sher
College of William & Mary
Department of Physics
Williamsburg, VA 23187
Phone (757) 221-3538
E-mail: mtsherwm.edu
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6. How to submit, subscribe, or unsubscribe to AASWOMEN
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