Julie Rathbun's Diversity Page
During my career, I've experienced first-hand the lack of diversity in
Physics, Astronomy, and Planetary Science. When I received my
Bachelor's degree in 1994, I was the only women in a class of 7
students graduating with physics degrees. I was hired by the
University of Redlands in 2001, the first woman to be hired in the
physics department. Now, I am a full professor in that department and
still the only woman hired into a tenure-track position. According to
the APS, in 2010 only 8% of Full Professors of physics were women. I
was made a full professor in 2015.
Women on NASA spacecraft Science teams
Many planetary scientists aspire to involvement in robotic spacecraft
mission science teams. Membership on such a team offers brand new
data, financial security, and a sense of awe and exploration. It can
lead to a cascade of opportunities from conference and public
presentations, to membership in subsequent missions, and prestige in
the community.
I have led a group of planetary and social scientists to determine the
percentage of women on 26 robotic planetary missions over the past 41
years. Our results were presented at the 2015 and 2016 DPS
meetings, in the Women
in Planetary Science and Planetary
Society blogs, and in Nature
Astronomy. The conclusion is that from 2001 through 2016, the
percentage of women involved in spacecraft science teams has remained
flat, at 15.8%. At the same time, the percentage of women in the
field has increased from ~15% to ~25%. I was also interviewed on this
topic by Science
Magazine.
At the Planetary
Science Vison 2050 Worshop, I presented a poster on workforce
issues. The abstract
is also available.
At the 2017 Women in Astronomy IV and the
2018 Women in Planetary Science and
Exploration meetings, I presented posters on behalf of L. Quick,
S. Diniega, and myself, on Women of Color in the Planetary Science
Workforce. We showed that if you assume 100% of white men that
have the talent and desire to be planetary scientists do so, then only
~30% of white women do and less than 3% of women of color (not
including Asian women). This represents a major loss of potentially
talented women of color who are kept out of the planetary science
community.
At the Women in Planetary Science and
Exploration meetin, I also presented a poster on behalf of the DPS Professional
Culture and Climate Subcommittee (PCCS). We highlighted several
events at the 2017 DPS meeting, including the lecture on
Microaggressions and the use of pronoun stickers.
DPS prizes
In early June, 2017, DPS
announced the winners of their major prizes. Margie Kivelson was
awarded the Kuiper Prize, which honors outstanding contributions to
the field of planetary science. In May 2016, Margie was awarded the
Monolith award from the Europa Clipper team and, after the award
presentation, she gave an amazing talk about her career. I was lucky
enough to have attended this talk and tweeted
it.
Of the six 2017 DPS award winners, 4 were awarded to women. ALL of
the women highly deserved their awards, but when such a large
percentage of a minority group gets prestigious awards, there is bound
to be those who call it out as undeserved or pandering. However, DPS
awards have ignorded deserving women for many years. In 2016, only 1
out of 5 awards was given to a women, and that that was the jornalism
award (not given to a scientist). Furthermore, in the history of the
awards, most have been awarded primarily to men. During Pat
Knezcek's Plenary lecture at the 2016 DPS meeting, she showed a
chart showing the numbers of men and women that had been awarded DPS
prizes. At that time, even the Urey prize, for young scientists, had
only been awarded to 16% women when there has been more than 20% women
in the field since ~2004. The awards that have gone to the most women
are the Eberhart, which is for journalism, and the Masursky, which is
for service. Margy Kivelson is only the second women EVER awarded the
Kuiper prize (the other was Carle M. Pieters, in 2004).