Friday, June 3, 2016

AASWomen Newsletter for June 3, 2016

AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of June 3, 2016
eds: Daryl Haggard, Nicolle Zellner, Elysse Voyer, & Heather Flewelling

This week's issues:

1. Astronomer Privilege
2. Meet your CSWA committee: Daryl Haggard      
3. No Status for June 2016 
4. Gender Bias Calculator
5. We need to do more for women in science
6. How to Get Tenure (If You’re a Woman)
7. Female scientists ‘have more glamour than the likes of BeyoncĂ©’ 
8. Job Opportunities        
9. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
10. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
11. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

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1. Astronomer Privilege
From: Jessica Mink   via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

As a person who has voluntarily given up one of the two most widely recognized privileges in order to be more honest with the world, I have given a lot of thought to the nature of privilege. I would define "privilege" as having advantages in life based on a single characteristic which is deemed more of value to others than not having that characteristic. It is usually totally unearned, but even if "earned", it may offer advantages in social situations that are out of scale with its relevance. A significant part of privilege is not being aware that you have it. All too often, that includes denying that you have it or that it even exists.

Read more at


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2. Meet your CSWA committee: Daryl Haggard 
From:   Daryl Haggard via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

[In this installment of our "new" series on the Women in Astronomy blog (the first one is here), we continue to introduce our readers to the Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy. Our next committee member to be introduced, Daryl Haggard, is the current lead editor for the AASWOMEN Newsletter (though passing the baton soon!), and has been a member of the committee for 2 years.]

Dr. Daryl Haggard is an Assistant Professor of Physics at McGill University in the McGill Space Institute. She studies active galactic nuclei and their host galaxies, the Galactic center and Sgr A*, and accretion-driven outflows using multi-wavelength and time domain surveys. (She co-authored, with Geoff Bower, a recent review of happenings in the Galactic Center in the February 2015 issue of Sky & Telescope.)

Read more at  


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3.  No Status for June 2016
From:  Nancy Morrison [nancyastro126_at_gmail.com]

It is my sad task to inform our readers that the CSWA's semi-annual magazine, Status, will not appear in June 2016 because of a lack of material. However, we have good things planned for the January, 2017 issue.

As always, AASWomen readers and others are invited to volunteer articles for Status on topics related to women and other underrepresented groups in science and society. Please check in advance with me or another member of the editorial group (listed in the masthead of any issue) to make sure your topic is suitable and not redundant with another article planned for the same issue. Submission deadlines are nominally November 15 for the January issue and April 15 for the June issue, but later deadlines can be negotiated. 

For more information, please see


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4. Gender Bias Calculator
From:  Meg Urry [meg.urry_at_yale.edu]

Inspired by a blog piece on gender biases in recommendation letters posted by the Association for Women in Science, this page allows the user to parse letters of recommendation for “female” vs. “male” words.

Find it at


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5. We need to do more for women in science
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]

In a recent article in Science, H. Ahmed reflects on an event related to a Women in Science group: an informal coffee hour with female speakers, “intended to give participants a chance to ask questions about science and gender”. After the Q&A session, she counts up the questions: two from the three men in the room and both unrelated to the purpose of these coffee hours. She’s livid.

Read more at

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6. How to Get Tenure (If You’re a Woman)
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]

Six female professors comment on a recent article by Stephen Walt, in which he offers suggestions in a number of areas for how to achieve tenure. However, according to these women, “his article overlooks a critical issue for about half of the junior faculty out there — the fact that they are women.”

Read more of the review at


Read Stephen Walt’s original article at


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7. Female scientists ‘have more glamour than the likes of BeyoncĂ©’ 
From: Nicolle Zellner [nzellner_at_albion.edu]

According to Liz Cameron, a new executive committee member for an organization overseeing children and lifelong learning in Glasgow, Scottland, finding “stories and emotion” in science will help draw girls to this field.

Read more at


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8. Job Opportunities

For those interested in increasing excellence and diversity in their organizations, a list of resources and advice is here: http://www.aas.org/cswa/diversity.html#howtoincrease 

- Research Fellow/Senior Research Fellow, Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy, Perth

- Lecturer/Instructor, Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 

- Research Engineer in Millimeter and Submillimeter Wavelength Electronics, NRAO

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9. How to Submit to the AASWOMEN newsletter

To submit an item to the AASWOMEN newsletter, including replies to topics, send email to aaswomen_at_aas.org 

All material will be posted unless you tell us otherwise, including your email address. 

When submitting a job posting for inclusion in the newsletter, please include a one-line description and a link to the full job posting. 

Please remember to replace "_at_" in the e-mail address above.

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10. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWOMEN newsletter

Join AAS Women List by email: 

Send email to aaswlist+subscribe_at_aas.org from the address you want to have subscribed. You can leave the subject and message blank if you like. 

Be sure to follow the instructions in the confirmation email. (Just reply back to the email list) 

To unsubscribe by email: 

Send email to aawlist+unsubscribe_at_aas.org from the address you want to have UNsubscribed. You can leave the subject and message blank if you like. 

To join or leave AASWomen via web, or change your membership settings: 


You will have to create a Google Account if you do not already have one, using https://accounts.google.com/newaccount?hl=en  

Google Groups Subscribe Help: 


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11. Access to Past Issues


Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.

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