Attaining Equality in Astronomy

Nothing seems radical about the latest guidelines for establishing equality for women in astronomy.

The Pasadena Recommendations—so-called because they were drawn up by attendees of a national meeting on women in astronomy held in Pasadena, California, nearly two years ago—include principles like “women and men are equally talented and deserve equal opportunity” and “full participation of men and women will maximize excellence in the field.” Specific recommendations are spelled out on tenure-track hiring, career advancement and recognition, institutional policies, varied career paths, cultural issues, and statistics gathering. (The Pasadena Recommendations are posted on the Web at http://www.aas.org/~cswa .)

But less than a week after the recommendations were endorsed by the American Astronomical Society on 9 January 2005, their relevance was underscored by the controversial and headline-making comments of Harvard University President Lawrence Summers. In a closed meeting, Summers suggested that women are underrepresented in science and engineering because they don’t work as hard as men, are not as good at math and science, and face discrimination. A transcript of his remarks was released on 17 February and is available online at http://www.president.harvard.edu/speeches/2005/nber.html .

Remarks like Summers’s show that “we are not ready for complacency yet,” says Meg Urry, director of the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics. “What we have learned in the past 20 years is that if you let the current system progress without intervention, nothing will change—the number of women won’t increase, and may even regress.” Urry, who helped draft the Pasadena Recommendations, notes that more than half of astronomy students aged 18–23 are women. “We are on the threshold of potentially being able to be fifty-fifty,” she says. “It’s important not to squander this exciting opportunity.”