This is the third in our new series of ADVICE posts as CSWA tries to ensure that information gathered over the years remains available to the current generation of students, postdocs, and faculty. This month, we try to deal with discrimination and harassment:
From: Joan Schmelz and Patricia Knezek [jschmelz_at_memphis.edu; knezek_at_noao.edu]
The good news for women in astronomy is that incidents of overt sexual discrimination and sexual harassment have declined dramatically in recent years. The bad news is that there are still problems, especially for grad students and post docs. Sometimes we don't realize that these problems are still out there until something happens to us or to someone we know personally.
As members of CSWA, young women sometimes seek us out to ask for advice or just talk about problems. We do our best to help, but we are not trained professionals. We thought many heads can be better than two, so we asked for advice from readers of AASWOMEN on two particular issues. We would also like to encourage readers to broaden the topic to other issues. No doubt some of you have developed good responses and advice, and we would like to widely distribute this information in order to benefit all. Rather than betray confidences or reveal personal details for the two issues we are raising here, we have chosen instead to combine similar incidents that have happened to each of us and volunteer to be the guinea pigs.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Saturday, May 18, 2013
AASWomen for May 17, 2013
AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of May 17, 2013
eds. Caroline Simpson, Michele M. Montgomery, Daryl Haggard, and Nick Murphy
This week's issues:
Issue of May 17, 2013
eds. Caroline Simpson, Michele M. Montgomery, Daryl Haggard, and Nick Murphy
This week's issues:
2. Too Few Women Fellows Down Under
3. Blog Posts on Academic Careers
5. Science Wonk: New Blog on the Intersection of Science and Politics
6. What to Do in Grad School to Prepare for a Possible Non-Academic Career
7. Lessons From Mom Serve a Yale Professor Well
8. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
9. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
Friday, May 17, 2013
Harrassment Jeopardy
My actual title is "Teaching employees about harassment law and policy using a game show". But the game show was "Who wants to become avoid making someone a multimillionaire" and both titles were too long. The setting was an all-hands meeting of a university lab, where about 40 graduate students, postdocs, staff and faculty learned about laws and policies relating to harassment from an employment attorney. I summarize what I learned in hopes that others will find it useful. Nothing herein is legal advice, and you should consult an attorney on matters of the law.
Harassment claims at a university are handled under three different broad categories: federal law, state law, and employer policies. The relevant federal laws are the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Titles VI and VII), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 and its amendments, Title IX of the Education Act of 1972, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Of these, Titles VI and IX and the Rehabilitation Act apply to educational institutions that accept federal funds; all others apply to employers. State laws vary of course, but generally include more extensive protections than the federal laws. Employer policies likewise often extend rights beyond those guaranteed by law.
The legal basis for harassment generally arises from so-called "protected classes" under Title VII, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Sex was added at the last moment in a controversial move that may have been intended to defeat the Civil Rights act. Age was added as a protected class under the ADEA, and disability was added under the ADA. 26 states prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation; Massachusetts adds gender identity and transgender roles. Employer policies often add further protections, and should be readily available from your employer.
Harassment claims at a university are handled under three different broad categories: federal law, state law, and employer policies. The relevant federal laws are the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Titles VI and VII), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 and its amendments, Title IX of the Education Act of 1972, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Of these, Titles VI and IX and the Rehabilitation Act apply to educational institutions that accept federal funds; all others apply to employers. State laws vary of course, but generally include more extensive protections than the federal laws. Employer policies likewise often extend rights beyond those guaranteed by law.
The legal basis for harassment generally arises from so-called "protected classes" under Title VII, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Sex was added at the last moment in a controversial move that may have been intended to defeat the Civil Rights act. Age was added as a protected class under the ADEA, and disability was added under the ADA. 26 states prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation; Massachusetts adds gender identity and transgender roles. Employer policies often add further protections, and should be readily available from your employer.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Too Few Women Fellows Down Under
I read a World View article in Nature this week (2 May 2013) that shocked me. It is about how few women there are in the Australian Academy of Science and was written by Douglas Hilton, head of the Department of Medical Biology at University of Melbourne. The statistics he gives are eye-catching with only 8% of academy members being women … and the situation is even worse than that low number suggests.
The Australian Academy of Science is modeled after the Royal Society in the UK and is the ultimate honor for Australian scientists. It is an independent organization with government endorsement. The academy was founded in 1954 by a group of prominent Australian scientists and supplanted the previous Australian National Research Council.
With the average age at election of 49 years, the academy is naturally an older segment of the Australian research community and it is not surprising that there is lingering gender inequality. However, the disturbing situation described in Prof. Hilton's piece is that the numbers are not improving. This year had 37 candidates considered and 20 members elected. Of the candidates (and new members), not one was a woman!
The government is aware of the problem and stated in a 2005 review of Australian academies that the academies should "focus on addressing gender imbalances in their fellowships". The fraction of women scientists in Australia is ~15%, which is not high but is significantly above the academy number.
Monday, May 13, 2013
AASWomen for May 10, 2013
AAS Committee on the Status of Women
Issue of May 10, 2013
eds. Caroline Simpson, Michele M. Montgomery, Daryl Haggard, and Nick Murphy
This week's issues:
Issue of May 10, 2013
eds. Caroline Simpson, Michele M. Montgomery, Daryl Haggard, and Nick Murphy
This week's issues:
1. En'hedu'anna - Our First Great Scientist
3. The BBC Academy and Women Experts
4. Closing the Gender Gap for Women in Science
5. Spotlight on Women in Science
6. Now Accepting Applications for the 2013 Blewett Fellowship
7. Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics
9. How to Submit to the AASWomen Newsletter
10. How to Subscribe or Unsubscribe to the AASWomen Newsletter
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
My Mother's Legacy
Today's guest blogger is Nicholas McConnell. Nicholas earned his PhD in 2012 and is now the Beatrice Watson Parrent Fellow at the Institute for Astronomy (University of Hawaii). His research focuses on supermassive black holes and giant elliptical galaxies.
This essay is about my mother. It is in part a shameless effort to earn family brownie points by "timely" blogging. Nonetheless, my mother's attitudes form one of the windows through which I try to examine gender issues in astronomy, and they inform my actions toward male and female colleagues. As I share her story I hope that others in this forum find common threads with their own.
I was born in 1984, the summer before my mother's final year of law school. She was working for The First National Bank of Chicago, who financed nighttime law classes for her and nine other employees. After graduating and passing the Illinois bar exam, she worked as an appellate court clerk, then as an associate lawyer for the firm Sidley Austin. In 1988 she resigned to take full-time care of me and my two younger siblings. She explains, "The old and sexist saying, 'The law is a jealous mistress,' is true. I wanted the impossible: to both pursue my career and to be with you all full-time. I focus too intensely on each immediate goal to be good at part-time anything." (In spite of this self-assessment, she did co-found the Chicago Bar Association's Part-time Woman's Network Committee.)
This essay is about my mother. It is in part a shameless effort to earn family brownie points by "timely" blogging. Nonetheless, my mother's attitudes form one of the windows through which I try to examine gender issues in astronomy, and they inform my actions toward male and female colleagues. As I share her story I hope that others in this forum find common threads with their own.
I was born in 1984, the summer before my mother's final year of law school. She was working for The First National Bank of Chicago, who financed nighttime law classes for her and nine other employees. After graduating and passing the Illinois bar exam, she worked as an appellate court clerk, then as an associate lawyer for the firm Sidley Austin. In 1988 she resigned to take full-time care of me and my two younger siblings. She explains, "The old and sexist saying, 'The law is a jealous mistress,' is true. I wanted the impossible: to both pursue my career and to be with you all full-time. I focus too intensely on each immediate goal to be good at part-time anything." (In spite of this self-assessment, she did co-found the Chicago Bar Association's Part-time Woman's Network Committee.)
Monday, May 6, 2013
En'hedu'anna - Our First Great Scientist
This week’s guest blogger is Sethanne Howard, an astronomer who has held positions with U.S. national observatories, NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Navy. She was also Chief of the U.S. Nautical Almanac Office, 2000-2003. Her research specialty is galactic dynamics. She has also been active in science education, especially concentrating on the history of women in science.
Many people, when asked to name an early scientist who is a woman, say Hypatia (Hy-pa-ti'-a). Actually they are about 2700 years too late! Women have been active in science since the beginning of written history. So cast your thoughts backward in time to 4300 years ago. This was the time of Sumer (an ancient civilization in southern Mesopotamia – modern Iraq). Writing had had not been around for very long (developed c. 3000 BCE).
Fortunately we have an abundance of Sumerian literature. They used cuneiform: imprints in damp clay, which was then allowed to harden. Initially the Sumerians used writing primarily as a form of record keeping. The most common cuneiform tablets recorded transactions of daily life: tallies of cattle, sheep, and goats kept by herders for their owners, production figures, lists for taxes, accounts, and contracts – the legalities we use today are not new.
Many people, when asked to name an early scientist who is a woman, say Hypatia (Hy-pa-ti'-a). Actually they are about 2700 years too late! Women have been active in science since the beginning of written history. So cast your thoughts backward in time to 4300 years ago. This was the time of Sumer (an ancient civilization in southern Mesopotamia – modern Iraq). Writing had had not been around for very long (developed c. 3000 BCE).
Fortunately we have an abundance of Sumerian literature. They used cuneiform: imprints in damp clay, which was then allowed to harden. Initially the Sumerians used writing primarily as a form of record keeping. The most common cuneiform tablets recorded transactions of daily life: tallies of cattle, sheep, and goats kept by herders for their owners, production figures, lists for taxes, accounts, and contracts – the legalities we use today are not new.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
