AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of May 30, 2008
eds. Joan Schmelz, Hannah Jang-Condell & Caroline Simpson
This week's issues:
1. No Urey Prize - Important to Submit Nominations
2. New biography of Maria Mitchell
3. 12 Traits That Create a Great Workplace for Women
4. Career Development Speaker Travel Grant Program
*** FOLLOWING POSITIONS WERE TAKEN FROM WIPHYS ***
5. U.S. Army Research Lab, Durham, NC
6. How to Submit, Subscribe, or Unsubscribe to AASWOMEN
7. Access to Past Issues of AASWOMEN
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1. No Urey Prize - Important to Submit Nominations
From: Andrea Schweitzer [schweitz
frii.com]
There was no Urey Prize awarded this year.
According to John Spencer of the Southwest Research Inst:
"Basically, there were insufficient nominations that met the prize criteria
(to quote the rules, "Candidates for the Urey Prize must not have reached
their 37th birthday OR have held a recognized doctorate for no more than 6
years (whichever is later) at the end of the calendar year of the award").
So, please submit more nominations next year!"
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2. New biography of Maria Mitchell
From: Meredith Hughes [mhughescfa.harvard.edu]
I recently read a new biography of Maria Mitchell and thought that others
on this list might enjoy it. The title is "Maria Mitchell and the Sexing
of Science: An Astronomer among the American Romantics," by Renee
Bergland.
It's full of all sorts of interesting information on Maria Mitchell's life
and attitude towards feminism, e.g. her own struggle between her modesty
and her belief in women's equality when negotiating her salary at Vassar.
One interesting piece of information I picked up from this book is that
the word "scientist" was first coined to apply to a woman. Who knew?
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3. 12 Traits That Create a Great Workplace for Women
From: Kevin Marvel [kevin.marvelaas.org]
I found the following "junk" mail highly informative. I think a lot of
departments and institutions could take a lesson from the 12 traits
highlighted below.
[The following purports to be from MyPartTimePRO.com, but was
flagged as a possible fraud attempt from another website claiming
to be MyPartTimePRO.com. The original (much longer) article is from the
National Association for Female Executives, and can be found on their
website, www.nafe.com -- eds.]
NAFE took a hard look at the top companies and spoke with high-level
women to find out why they succeed there. The following 12 critical
factors set these organizations apart as companies of choice for women:
1. Provide job rotations between line (P&L) and staff (legal,
finance, strategy, HR, communications) positions to give broad
cross-organizational experience.
2. Present women with challenging assignments that provide a diverse
set of experiences.
3. Offer early P&L responsibility to build the talent pool from the
bottom up.
4. Build experience with P&L. Teach women how they can impact the P&L
now and going forward through responsibility and decision-making.
5. Ensure line managers are accountable and play an active role in
women's advancement.
6. Start at the top with the CEO making the business case and setting
gender metrics that are separate from other diversity goals.
7. Remove gender bias from evaluations.
8. Use female role models to show other women they can make it to the
top.
9. Establish women's networks that focus on development.
10. Provide high-level mentoring to talented women.
11. Support work/life balance for women who often have more to
balance.
12. Change the culture - mentoring, role modeling, and the
opportunity to effect change are what help women succeed.
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4. Career Development Speaker Travel Grant Program
From: WIPHYS, May 27, 2008
APS now has a Career Development Speaker Travel Grant Program to provide
assistance to physics departments that are trying to increase their
career development activities and to raise the career awareness of
students seeking undergraduate and graduate physics degrees. Information
at http://www.aps.org/careers/educator/travelgrant/index.cfm
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5. Interdisciplinary Positions, U.S. Army Research Lab, Durham, NC
From: WIPHYS, May 27, 2008
Vacancy Announcement # NEAC08733219D. Supervisory Physical Scientist
and Supervisory Physicist. Closing date June 20, 2008. US Army Research
Lab, Durham, NC. Information at www.usajobs.gov (enter vacancy
announcement in search field).
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6. How to Submit, Subscribe, or Unsubscribe to AASWOMEN
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send email to aaswomenaas.org
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7. Access to Past Issues of AASWOMEN
Past issues of AASWOMEN are available at
http://www.aas.org/cswa/AASWOMEN.html
Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.
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