Friday, September 16, 2016

AASWomen Newsletter for September 16, 2016


AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of September 16, 2016
eds: Nicolle Zellner, Elysse Voyer, Heather Flewelling, Cristina Thomas, and Maria Patterson

This week's issues:

1. Women on Spacecraft Missions: Are we moving towards parity with the percentage in the field?   
2. Sexual Harassment in the Sciences: A Call to Respond         
3. University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
4. The Science Ambassador Scholarship
5. White House women want to be in the room where it happens        
6. The Lenny Interview: Margaret Wertheim
7. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
8. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
9. Access to Past Issues of the AASWomen Newsletter

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1. Women on Spacecraft Missions: Are we moving towards parity with the percentage in the field?
From: Christina Richey via womeninastronomy.blogspot.com

The following blog post was written by Dr. Julie Rathbun, Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute and Professor of Physics at the University of Redlands. The post was originally posted at the Women in Planetary Science blog, and is cross-posted here.

How far have we come and how far do we still need to go to welcome women into planetary science, and, particularly, spacecraft missions? For the 2015 DPS meeting, together with a great group of volunteers, I found lists of names of the team members for 22 NASA planetary science missions over a period of 41 years. We considered only original team scientists (not engineers, members of project management, nor students or postdocs) from US institutions (since investigators from foreign institutions are generally not funded by NASA). We determined the year each team was selected and the gender presentation of each team member.

Read more at


See the Dr. Rathbun’s original article and more data at

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2. Sexual Harassment in the Sciences: A Call to Respond   
From: Nancy Morrison [nancyastro126_at_gmail.com]

On Friday, September 9, there was held in Washington, DC, a conference with the above title, organized by the American Geophysical Union, funded by the NSF, and sponsored by several additional scientific organizations. The AAS was represented by President Christine Jones, Past President Meg Urry (an invited speaker), Deputy Executive Officer Joel Parriott, and me. The conference's invited speakers were informative and inspirational, and the small-group sessions were well-timed and well-organized. 

In preparation for the conference, the organizers provided a useful list of on-line resources. Particularly recommended: U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace: Report of Co-Chairs Chai R. Feldblum and Victoria A. Lipnic (2016 June).

To see the conference press release, please see



For a list of resources and a link to the full report, please see



To access the CSWA's resource page on sexual harassment, please go to

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3. University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
From: Alison Coil [acoil_at_ucsd.edu]

The University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program was established in 1984 to encourage outstanding women and minority Ph.D. recipients to pursue academic careers at the University of California. The current program offers postdoctoral research fellowships and faculty mentoring to outstanding scholars in all fields whose research, teaching, and service will contribute to the diversity and equal opportunity at the University of California.  The application deadline is November 1, 2016.

For details, please see 

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4. The Science Ambassador Scholarship
From: Mary Beth Laychak [mary_at_cfht.hawaii.edu]

Cards Against Humanity is funding full scholarships for undergraduate women who major in STEM. 

Learn more and apply at

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5. White House women want to be in the room where it happens      
From:  Maria Patterson [mtpatter_at_uw.edu]

“When President Obama took office, two-thirds of his top aides were men. Women complained of having to elbow their way into important meetings. And when they got in, their voices were sometimes ignored.

So female staffers adopted a meeting strategy they called “amplification”: When a woman made a key point, other women would repeat it, giving credit to its author. This forced the men in the room to recognize the contribution — and denied them the chance to claim the idea as their own.

Read more about these amplification strategies at

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6. The Lenny Interview: Margaret Wertheim
From: Daryl Haggard [daryl.haggard_at_mcgill.ca]

When are we going to crochet the Hubble Deep Field?!

“For more than ten years, science journalist Margaret Wertheim has been raising awareness about the looming threat to corals by organizing an effort to reproduce the reef in yarn and string. With her artist twin sister Christine, she founded the Institute for Figuring, which has mobilized thousands of contributors to learn advanced mathematical concepts that allow them to knit the ample frills and plumes and pom-poms of underwater creatures. The rainbow reef they have assembled is now a traveling exhibit named Crochet Coral Reef: Toxic Seas, which will be shown at New York's Museum of Arts and Design starting this month.”

Read more at


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7. 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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8. 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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9. Access to Past Issues


Each annual summary includes an index of topics covered.

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