AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of March 26, 2010
eds. Joan Schmelz, Caroline Simpson & Michele Montgomery
This week's issues:
1. Anonymous Request for Advice
2. Summit on Gender and the Postdoctorate II
3. Women Making Gains on Faculty at Harvard
4. Inspiring Women in Science
5. Progress, but Long Way to Go for Women in Science
6. Juggling Books and Babies
7. NASA Planetary Science Summer School
8. Women of Color Awards
9. Factors that Encourage and Discourage Women and Minorities in Pursuing STEM
Careers
10. How to Submit, Subscribe, or Unsubscribe to AASWOMEN
11. Access to Past Issues of AASWOMEN
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1. Anonymous Request for Advice
From: Anonymous Female Astro PhD Student
[Please send advice to aaswomen
aas.org -- Eds.]
I'm a late-type graduate student who is suffering from what seems to be an
incredibly hostile relationship and I don't know what to do. I am about a
year from graduating and my relationship with my advisor is complicated
at best and toxic at worst. My decision to work with this person was
probably ill-advised, but I am not in a position to start over.
I understand that getting a Ph.D. is full of struggles, but for some reason,
mine seems to have had more landmines than are typical. For instance, a
friend of mine overheard one of the professors in our department talking
with someone about my advisor's fascination with my breasts, at an
astronomy conference. I fight tooth and nail to be taken seriously by my
advisor, while my position is undermined by other people "of power"
reducing me to a body part: my breasts. The actions of this professor are
beyond inappropriate, but he is not who I have to deal with every day, and
is not someone that has any say in my graduation or my success. My
advisor is.
Truth be told, my advisor has a history. I have only seen glimpses of his
past, from asides from other women ("oh, is he still chasing all of the
female grad students?") to innuendos made to other grad students, but
never anything overt dealing with me. At the same time, being around him
has made me feel creepy from time to time. As such, I go out of my way
to wear baggy clothes and avoid anything form fitting. I've done this since
undergrad. I would notice once in a while that advisor's attention was not
fully on me, and would readjust the way my shirt was hanging or put a
pullover over it, or would laugh uncomfortably to a subtle sexual joke
(they happened occasionally) but I was not willing to assume that he
wasn't trying to behave more appropriately, and if anything had ever been
overt, I would have not let it slide. The caveat is that unless things are
completely overt, I tend not to notice them.
I'm scared that reporting this will get me a "cage rattler" reputation. I really
want to continue on in academia, and know this would be a serious blow
to that goal. In order to harbor a better relationship with my advisor, I've
taken to acting more bubbly and feminine. It seems to have smoothed over
our interactions, but I can't believe that I am putting on this mask to
placate an advisor who seems to be extra sensitive to me disagreeing or
acting strong, adding this new development to everything else, this "tactic"
is even more worrisome. I now feel undressed by him. How can I have any
normal interactions with someone that I now worry is undressing and
objectifying me?
I have no idea what to do, and am sort of paralyzed by anger by the whole
thing. I want to be a scientist, and know that speaking up will jeopardize
that. If I could, I would just ignore this all, put my head down, but I'm so
buried in the non-science part of being a graduate student that I am having
a really hard time dissociating the science from all this other baggage.
AASWOMEN, I could really use your help and advice.
Thanks for listening.
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2. Summit on Gender and the Postdoctorate II
From: HannahWomen in Astronomy Blog
When scientists try to address a problem, we focus on the data. So a good
bit of the meeting was devoted to data on postdocs, or at least what there
is of it. It turns out that it's fairly hard to even count the number of
postdocs in the country. Even within a single institution, it might be hard
to count the number of postdocs, because titles and funding sources are
not uniform. Nevertheless, some statistics do exist, and those sources
include the NSF's Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) and Survey of
Doctoral Recipients (SDR); and Sigma Xi's "Professionalizing the
Postdoctoral Experience, with highlights summarized in Doctors Without
Orders. I wasn't able to write down all the statistics presented, but the
presentations should all be made available online eventually.
Read more at:
http://womeninastronomy.blogspot.com/2010/03/summit-on-gender-and-postdoctorate-vol_22.html#more
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3. Women Making Gains on Faculty at Harvard
From: Joan Schmelz [jschmelzmemphis.edu]
An article by Tamar Lewin appeared recently in the NY Times on Women
at Harvard:
Five years after Lawrence H. Summers, then the president of Harvard
University, suggested that innate differences might explain why women
are less successful in science and math careers than men, Harvard is, in
some ways, a different place.
Lawrence H. Summers, now a White House adviser, resigned from
Harvard in 2006. Professors can get up to $20,000 to help pay for child care,
there are new programs to encourage young women to pursue science and research
careers, and seven of the 16 members of Harvard’s Council of Deans are
now women.
“This is not your father’s Harvard,” said Martha Minow, dean of the law
school.
For the remainder of the article, please see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13harvard.html?src=me
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4. Inspiring Women in Science
From: Joan Schmelz [jschmelzmemphis.edu]
An article by Meg Lowman appeared recently in the Herald-Tribune on
famous women in science:
Marie Curie tops a poll of inspiring women in science. Curie, along with
husband Pierre, first isolated the two radioactive elements radium and
plutonium. She was born Marie Sklodowska in Warsaw in 1867. Each
year, in my Conservation Biology class at New College, I conduct a pre-
quiz to assess student knowledge of the sciences. One question asks
students to name three famous women scientists, as well as three famous
male scientists. The list of men is consistently filled with a diverse
array prominant names. But despite the fact that New
College attracts the top students throughout Florida and the country,
almost none can list three women scientists. More than 80 percent fail to
list even one.
Approximately 15 percent cite Marie Curie, and usually a handful proudly
scribble Jane Goodall. Rachel Carson gets an occasional mention, and a
few individuals write down the name of their professor (likely the most
savvy students hoping to earn a higher grade?).
Most high school -- as well as college -- textbooks give many more
examples of distinguished male scientists than females. Although more
men than women have historically pursued science, female students need
role models to inspire career choices. This may in part explain why women
still fall significantly behind as compared to their male counterparts in
many science-based careers.
For the remainder of the article, please see:
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100315/COLUMNIST/3151002/2127?Title=Inspiring-women-in-science
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5. Progress, but Long Way to Go for Women in Science
From: Joan Schmelz [jschmelzmemphis.edu]
An article by Denise Linke appeared recently in the Chicago Sun-Times on
women majoring in science:
More American high school and college women are majoring in sciences
than ever before.
But businesses and government agencies must do more to keep women in
science classes and get them into the workforce, sociologist Sandra
Hanson said during a Women's History Month lecture at Fermi National
Accelerator Laboratory.
"We are definitely making progress, but women remain under-represented
in science and science education," Hanson declared. "Women earned 20
percent of the Ph.D. degrees in engineering (in 2006), but they represented
only 12 percent of employed engineers."
Physicist Sharon Lackey, who introduced Hanson, agreed that sciences are
no longer a male-only preserve.
For the remainder of the article, please see:
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/news/2102230,women_science_progress_au031510.article
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6. Juggling Books and Babies
From: WIPHYS March 24, 2010
“Graduate Students Juggle Parenthood with Academic Politics”,
Washington Post, 3/23/10.
University of Maryland graduate student Anupama Kothari went into
labor on a Friday afternoon two years ago. After a Caesarean section, she
was a first-time mother, with a baby girl with huge brown eyes. Read the
rest of the story at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/21/AR2010032102620.html?hpid%3Dnewswell&sub=AR
The author of the article, Jenna Johnson, has a blog on the subject of
family/maternity leave at various institutions
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/campus-overload/2010/03/grad_students_fight_to_get_mat.html
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7. NASA Planetary Science Summer School
From: WIPHYS March 24, 2010
NASA is accepting applications from science and engineering post-docs,
recent PhDs, and doctoral students for its 22nd Annual Planetary Science
Summer School, which will hold two separate sessions this summer (19-23
July and 2-6 August) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
During the program, student teams will carry out the equivalent of an early
mission concept study, prepare a proposal authorization review
presentation, present it to a review board, and receive feedback. At the
end of the week, students will have a clearer understanding of the life
cycle of a robotic space mission; relationships between mission design,
cost, and schedule; and the tradeoffs necessary to stay within cost and
schedule while preserving the quality of science.
Applications are due 1 May 2010. Partial financial support is available for
a limited number of individuals. Further information is available at
http://pscischool.jpl.nasa.gov
Leslie Lowes
Manager, NASA Planetary Science Summer School Pasadena, Ca. 91109
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8. Women of Color Awards
From: WIPHYS March 25, 2010
For more than two decades, Career Communications Group (CCG) has
been celebrating diversity in the science, technology, engineering and math
(STEM) fields. In 1987, CCG introduced the Black Engineer of the Year
Awards (BEYA) and later, in 1996, the Women of Color Awards (WOC)
recognizing the accomplishments of diverse men and women in corporate
America. Since then, this prestigious group of awards has been coveted by
the nation’s most successful employees and employers and has become the
hallmark for external and internal corporate recognition programs in the
diversity space.
The 2010-2011 award programs:
http://guest.cvent.com/i.aspx?5S%2cM3%2c7d481839-8eac-4e54-bbee-8837876cd2ab
The 2009 list of Women of Color honorees:
http://www.ccgmag.com/woc/honorees.php
The 2010 Black Engineer honorees:
http://www.blackengineeroftheyear.org/v3/honorees_beya.php
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9. Factors that Encourage and Discourage Women and Minorities in
Pursuing STEM Careers
From: WIPHYS March 25, 2010
“U.S. Gets Poor Grades in Nurturing STEM Diversity", by Erik W.
Robelen
The nation’s K-12 education system gets an average grade of D for the job
it does “engaging and nurturing” minorities to pursue careers in the STEM
fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and a D-plus
for such performance with girls, based on results released today from a
survey of female and minority chemists and chemical engineers. Read
article at
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/03/22/27stem.h29.html?tkn=NWVFcgAJIKVsbeYl2%2BToW1DL8nSEuQXi5ytU&cmp=clp-edweek
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10. How to Submit, Subscribe, or Unsubscribe to AASWOMEN
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11. 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.