Equity/Inclusion

Astronomy, and the sciences in general, are subject to a host of historical barriers to access that disproportionately affect different groups. These biases drive away otherwise fully qualified individuals and lead to demographics that are grossly out of sync with the general demographics of the US population. Removing these barriers is an active process built upon an understanding of the factors involved.
 
Listed below is a collection of resources related to diversity and inclusiveness within Astronomy, and related fields, to aid in an understanding of biases, and how to break down these barriers to access.

Reference Lists
      Lists of resources related to diversity and inclusiveness within astronomy
 Organizations
      Multiple organizations within Astronomy are working to increase diversity.
  • SGMA (AAS Committee for Sexual-Orientation & Gender Minorities in Astronomy)  
  • CSMA (AAS Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy)
  • CSWA (AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy)  
  • WGAD (AAS Working Group on Accessibility and Disability) ​
  • TaMIA (Towards a More Inclusive Astronomy) ​
  • AAWIP (African-American Women in Physics)
  • NSBP (National Society of Black Physicists)
  • PAARC (Physics and Astronomy Anti-Racism Coalition)
  • AfNWA (African Network of Women in Astronomy)
  • LUMA (League of Underrepresented Minoritized Astronomers)
  • Women and Girls Astronomy Program
  • and many others
Reviews/Reports
      Surveys covering recent statistics, best practices, etc.
Online Tools/Toys
      Useful online utilities for understanding or evaluating biases
Classroom Resources
     A collection of resources useful for teaching to a diverse student body, and teaching about the diverse history of astronomy
Williams College
     A collection of Williams College resources on equity and inclusion
Journal Articles
     Published research relevant to discussions of diversity and inclusiveness within STEM (*=discussed in Wesleyan Diversity Journal Club)
  2024

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    2016
  • Stereotypes about gender and science: Women ne Scientists (Carli et al. 2016)
    • Survey of undergraduate students comparing stereotypes of women and men to that of scientists. They find that stereotypes associated with scientists are more highly correlated with stereotypes about men than about women. This effect is smaller among women at single-sex colleges. For fields with a larger fraction of women (psychology vs biology/chemistry/physics) the stereotypes about scientists were more similar to stereotypes about women than in the male-dominated fields.  
  • Even Einstein struggled: Effects of learning about great scientists' struggles on high school student motivation to learn (Lin-Siegler et al. 2016)
    • A study finding that presenting (predominately minority) students with stories about the intellectual, or personal, struggles of scientists leads to increased performance, while presenting stories about the great achievements of scientists may lead to decreased performance. This effect was most significant among the low-performing students.
  • Males Under-Estimate Academic Performance of Their Female Peers in Undergraduate Biology Classrooms (Grunspan et al. 2016)
    • In a survey of intro biology courses, men over-nominated male peers as being knowledgeable about course content.  This bias persists when accounting for outspokenness and class performance, and was not seen among the female students. 
 
    2015  
    2014
  • Allies against sexism: The role of men in confronting sexism (Drury & Kaiser 2014)
  • Elite male faculty in the life sciences employ fewer women (Sheltzer & Smith 2014)
  • Studying gender in conference talks -- Data from the 223rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society (Davenport et al. 2014)*
    • A study of the gender distribution among question askers at the 223rd AAS meeting in January 2014. They find that only 24% of questions were asked by women, but women made up 35% of speakers. Sessions chaired by women have a gender distribution of question askers more similar to the overall conference demographics. 
  • Asking gender questions (Pritchard et al. 2014)*
    • Study of the gender of people that asked questions at the National Astronomy Meeting in the UK in June 2014. Women are under-represented among question askers (18%) as compared to the overall fraction of female attendees (28%). The gender of the speaker and the gender of the session chair do not significantly affect the number of questions asked, or the gender ratio of the question askers. 
  • Gender-based systematics in HST proposal selection (Reid 2014)
    • An examination of gender-based success rate in HST proposals from 2001 to 2012. Male PIs have a consistently higher success rate, by ~5 percentage points, over the entire period. This discrepancy may, in part, be due to differences in seniority; there are more senior male PIs than senior female PIs, and these senior male PIs have a much higher success rate than senior female PIs (male and female recent graduates have similar success rates). Also the younger the panel the higher success rate for female PIs.
  •  Women's persistence into graduate astronomy programs: The roles of support, interest, and capital (McCormick et al. 2014)
    • The authors interview five female astronomy graduate students in order to understand the factors in their success. The students mention (1) engaging introductory courses, (2) mentoring, from both faculty and postdocs, (3) a collaborative, rather than competitive, classroom environment. Love of astronomy and lack of economic constraints are also common themes.
  • Survey of Academic Field Experiences (SAFE): Trainees report harassment and assault (Clancy et al. 2014)
    • Survey among field scientists (mainly anthropologists and archaeologists) to determine the frequency of sexual assault and harassment during field work. A majority (72%) of respondents reported that they had observed or been told about researchers making inappropriate or sexual remarks, with much of this based on first hand experience (64%). Harassment of women tends to come from superiors, while for men it comes from peers. [Snowball sampling methods means these numbers may be upper limits]
  • ​Collaborating with people like me: Ethnic co-authorship within the US (Freeman & Huang 2014)
  • A test that fails (Miller & Stassum 2014)
    • ​ "In simple terms, the GRE is a better indicator of sex and skin color than of ability and ultimate success." Essay arguing that physics and astronomy departments should stop using the GRE as a metric in graduate admissions decisions. 

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Related Journal Articles
     Research in non-STEM fields that also applies to STEM
Affirmative Action
     Research related to affirmative action college admissions policies