In astronomy, gender equality is still a work in progress.
Around
165 scientists signed the Baltimore Charter for Women in Astronomy, a demand
for gender equality in the field, in December 1992, almost 30 years ago. The
charter was "strong and radical" at the time, according to Yale
University professor of physics and astronomy Meg Urry. She claims that looking
back, everything appears "tame."
For
instance, the charter notes that "women and men are equally capable of
doing excellent science," "diversity contributes to, rather than
conflicts with, excellence in science," and that the current systems for
selecting, assessing, training, and recognizing astronomers "often prevent
the equal participation of women." Five comprehensive recommendations offer
ideas for improving gender equality. These include allowing women to
participate in the hiring process, disclosing the demographics of astronomical
organizations, enforcing physical safety for astronomers who might work alone
in observatories, and ending sexual harassment. They also include broadening
the criteria for hiring, promoting, assigning, and rewarding positions to
account for different career trajectories.
The
Space Telescope Science Institute, a location long known for its hostility
toward women, served as the charter's birthplace (STScI). When Urry joined the
faculty there in 1990, there were half as many women among the faculty's 60
astronomers.
According
to Urry, men were given projects, nominations for awards, and promotions at the
institute. "Women were consistently underpaid and thought to be less
competent than men." According to Urry, Anne Kinney, the only other female
faculty member at STScI at the time, was alone in charge of the Hubble Space
Telescope's faint-object spectrograph. She was accountable all the time, 365
days a year. She was kicking her behind. Instead of seeing that doing a decent
job was structurally impossible, her superiors informed her she wasn't doing a
good enough job.
Urry
inquired about the proportion of female applicants during a faculty discussion
about hiring. She claims that the other faculty members' reaction was hostile.
The response was "Lots!" however when Riccardo [Giacconi] posed the
same query at the following meeting. (The director of STScI was Giacconi. He
shared the 2002 Physics Nobel Prize.)
Goetz
Oertel, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy's (AURA) then
president, is credited with having the idea to host a workshop on women in
astronomy, according to Urry. Giacconi recommended that the group develop a
"Magna Carta" because "we wanted to have an outcome," she
continues, and he supported the proposal "enthusiastically." The
primary organizers of the ensuing workshop at STScI were she and Kinney, who is
currently the deputy director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
Debra
Elmegreen, professor emerita at Vassar College, who at the time served as chair
of the American Astronomical Society's (AAS) Committee on the Status of Women
in Astronomy, recalls the meeting as being great. Many males also arrived,
which you require. Like at the outset of the #MeToo movement, they were
sympathetic. Men spotted problems that women might not have given much thought
to. And women suddenly believed they could warn others about obstacles. The
meeting, in my opinion, particularly empowered younger women.
According
to Urry, "seeing 150 women in one room was a major positive outcome."
We felt encouraged by that. The charter was written by the attendees, and the
majority of the 200 attendees, including about 35 men, signed it. However,
attendees frequently ran across resistance when presenting the charter to
coworkers and the AAS for approval. According to Urry, "most localities
declined to support the charter." "Normally, at least one woman
should be on the shortlist for any position, paid or not," was an outlandish
claim that nobody could stomach. The charter "would be endorsed in a
heartbeat" today, she continues.
When
she was a graduate student, Patricia Knezek—who is now a program scientist at
NASA—wanted to attend the meeting, but her advisor rejected the notion because
he didn't want to foot the bill. Knezek claims, "Junior ladies like myself
were dealing with these situations every day. "Playboy woman pinups were
present at the observatory where I conducted my observations. And male students
would evaluate female students based on their legs. "We had talking points
after the meeting, which featured Baltimore Charter banners hanging on office
doors, she adds. Calendars with Playboy bunnies were taken down. That
information disappeared. We continue to work on it.
In
the subsequent decades, the situation for women in astronomy in the US has
significantly improved. After the Baltimore Charter, "I witnessed things
shift," claims Elmegreen. It is impossible to demonstrate a causal link,
yet there are more women working in the field.
Women
made up 40% of first-year astronomy graduate students in 2018–19, up from 25%
in 1997–98. In astronomy departments, the proportion of female assistant
professors increased from 23% in 2003 to 41% in 2020, and that of female full
professors from 10% to 19%. For instance, just 25% of associate professors and
13% of full professors in physics departments were female in 2020. The American
Institute of Physics, which is the publisher of Physics Today, provided the
data.
Although
the numbers are rising, Elmegreen notes that "we are not there yet."
"Something is still stopping the figures from being demographically
representative," She points out that fewer women than men enter the sector
and that sexual harassment and delayed career advancement are still prevalent.
She laments the fact that a Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy is
still necessary.
The
Universities Space Research Association's director of the Science and
Technology Institute, Joan Schmelz, claims to have noticed a change:
"There are now a lot more women working in astronomy." People who
previously would not have bothered to pay attention now do so when stereotype threats,
harassment, and unconscious bias are involved. Schmelz did not attend the
Baltimore meeting, although she did go to a subsequent gathering in College
Park, Maryland, in 2009. There have also been three additional gatherings for
women in astronomy, in Pasadena, California (2003), Nashville, Tennessee
(2015), and Austin, Texas (2017).
The
biases we recall for women in science generally still apply to women in
leadership jobs, according to Schmelz. These prejudices are dissipating, but as
your job progresses, the hill gets higher, she continues, so you are
continually moving forward. It's a struggle. She claims that the Baltimore
Charter "was the start of a steady revolution. Cultural changes take time
to implement.
"Our
focus is on women but steps done to enhance the condition of women in astronomy
should be implemented aggressively to those minorities even more
marginalized," the charter's preamble declares. Kinney quotes President
Obama as saying, "We need to rely on the complete brain trust of the
country instead of neglecting a substantial fraction because of ethnicity or
gender," in reference to initiatives to increase the number of Black,
Hispanic, and LGBT+ people in STEM disciplines. Although ambitious, it's significant.