Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy

Here is another comment: I have been trying to get a receipt for the conference fee. No contact information is found on the website. Nearly all of my emails go unanswered. I think these facts stand for themselves.

I was really frustrated by the way people seem to separate out women and minorities. Some of us are both female and persons of color! I would love to see a conference on women that was fully inclusive and really tackled the issues facing ALL women, not just white women. This would include a more honest assessment of the state of the profession, ... Read Morewhich is that while white women have made significant progress, Latina, Black and Native American women have not made too much. Asian women face unique challenges as well (the data on this topic is very interesting, and lo and behold, not mentioned at all at the meeting). But I don't think having a conference about minorities fixes this:
a. The National Society of Black Physicists + National Society of Hispanic Physicists annual conference forms a lot of this function (huge astronomy presence there), so no need to reinvent the wheel.
b. Women's issues will not be the focus of a conference that is about a group that is numerically dominated by men. (Minorities in science is still mostly men of color.)

:) ha ha ha! But we all do that so its ok :)

hear, hear! The lines for the ladies' room alone is enough to require longer breaks.