AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of March 20, 2009
eds. Joan Schmelz, Caroline Simpson & Michele Montgomery
This week's issues:
1. AASWOMEN Advice
2. Astro2010 Infrastructure Study Groups
3. How to Submit, Subscribe, or Unsubscribe to AASWOMEN
4. Access to Past Issues of AASWOMEN
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1. AASWOMEN Advice
From: Joan Schmelz [jschmelz
memphis.edu]
AASWOMEN was asked for advice recently on two different topics: (1)
suggestions for dealing with situations where your ideas are ignored or
dismissed; and (2) questions one might ask or be asked during an interview
for a job in academia.
(1) Have you ever been in this situation: you're sitting in a meeting and
make what you think is a great suggestion; you're ignored. Ten minutes
later, someone else makes a similar suggestion and everyone thinks it's
just the greatest idea. Are you invisible? Did you imagine it? Were you
really speaking out loud?
How can women deal with being ignored at meetings and/or having their ideas
dismissed? Are there ways to enlist support of colleagues? What if you do
not have supportive colleagues? I have read and heard of various strategies:
-Make sure you get an adequate seat at the 'table' (so that you are not
hiding in a corner);
-Choose your timing: wait for the 'right opportunity' to jump into the
conversation (not always easy);
-Speak slowly; offer more than a quick quip;
-Should you embellish with 'authoritative phrases'?
-Should you remind the group that this was your idea? ("As I suggested
earlier...");
-Should you help out other women? ("As colleague-X suggested...").
Are these effective strategies? What is your experience? What else can we
do?
(2) About questions one might ask or be asked during an interview for a job
in academia. I found a couple of pretty good links:
http://www.disccrs.org/reports/interviewhints.pdf
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/careerprep/jobsearch/interviewquestions.html
I think these are a good place to start, but I would like to ask for help
from AASWOMEN readers in creating (1) advice for those who find themselves
being ignored; and (2) a set of questions that would be appropriate for jobs
in astronomy and physics.
I'll compile the lists and post them on the CSWA web site under "Advice"
at:
http://www.aas.org/cswa/advice
FYI: Advice listings already in place are:
1. Top Ten Ways to be a Better Advisor for Graduate Students
2. Advisors, How Do You Deal with Student Tears?
3. Yes, Virginia, Discrimination and Harassment Do Still Happen
4. Advice on When to Raise a Family
5. Advice for Postdocs Applying for Tenure-Track Positions
6. The 2-Body Problem: New Advice for an Old Problem?
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2. Astro2010 Infrastructure Study Groups
From: Joan Schmelz [jschmelzmemphis.edu]
After last week's item about Astronomy Life After the Post-Doc Phase,
there was quite a bit of activity on the Women in Astronomy Blog:
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/
related to the two original items:
"The Post Postdoc Phase"
From: Joan@Women in Astronomy Blog, March 9, 2009
"Something I Would Like to See the Decadal Report Address But Am Afraid It
Won't"
From: Hannah@Women in Astronomy Blog, March 9, 2009
as well as a new related post from our blogger-in-chief: Career Path Networking
From: Hannah@Women in Astronomy Blog, March 16, 2009
All this is happening as the Astronomy Decadal Survey gears up and the
State of Profession Position Papers come due. These are available at:
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/astro2010/publicview.aspx
What is now also in the public domain is the membership of the various
Astro2010 Infrastructure Study Groups, which includes demographics (DEM). The
job of the DEM Study Group is to estimate the numbers of astronomers and
astrophysicists working in different environments and subfields. Consider
diversity, geography and student populations. In academia, consider diversity
among different academic ranks. Examine the individual grants programs in
NASA, the NSF and DOE and break down resource allocation by field, discipline
and cost category where possible. Collate oversubscription rates for
programs. Examine publication rates by field and discipline.
I am member of the DEM Study Group as are several former members of CSWA.
We are 'consultants,' which means that our role is to gatherer
information rather than to make decisions. We have weekly telecons and are
actively considering issues of gender and ethnic representation as well as
the 'postdoc problem,' which is discussed in Hannah's blog post as well
as in many of the State of Profession Position Papers.
I've read several of these Position Papers so far, and especially for
issues related to AASWOMEN, I can recommend:
-Challenges Facing Young Astrophysicists by Zakamska et al.
-Employment and Funding in Astronomy by Seth et al.
-Training the Next Generation of Astronomers by Williams et al.
I'll keep reading. If you have a comment or concern about DEM issues, we
invite you to post it to one of the blog items. If you want or need to rema=
in anonymous, you can e-mail it to me directly.
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3. How to Submit, Subscribe, or Unsubscribe to AASWOMEN
To submit to AASWOMEN: send email to aaswomenaas.org. All material sent to that address
will be posted unless you tell us otherwise (including your email address).
To subscribe or unsubscribe to AASWOMEN go to
http://lists.aas.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aaswlist
and fill out the form.
If you experience any problems, please email itdeptaas.org
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4. 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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