Monday Minute: Reference letters, ANSMET, and inspiring women
It’s Monday again, and time for another Monday Minute, a roundup of the latest interesting links on women in planetary science. Before you start your work today, don’t forget to check out last week’s featured women in planetary science: Carolyn van der Bogert and Faith Vilas.
We send our best wishes and a big BON VOYAGE to Ralph Harvey, Rhiannon Mayne, Inge Loes ten Kate, and the rest of the 2010 ANSMET crew headed down for this year’s expedition! Stay warm — and we hope you find some amazing meteorites this year!
What’s new around the net? A reader sent us this link to consider: Do reference letters cost women jobs? Do they? If they do, what can we do differently, as writers, readers, and/or requesters of these letters? What do you think?
Nicolle Zellner
azalucha
barbylon
baryonic
elakdawalla
Emilie Royer
Erin
geochemom
interplanetsarah
Jordan M Bretzfelder
Kat Gardner-Vandy
Kelsi Singer
lostrack621
lovenstars
ryannwatkins
sandrift
squawky
Susan Niebur
Women in Planetary Science: Female Scientists on Careers, Research, Space Science, and Work/Life Balance 
While this study looks at word choices, applicants can also be affected by references to marital and parental status in their reference letters. I was kindly and indirectly informed by an interviewer that one of my letter writers let everyone know I had a baby during my PhD (in a way the referee probably thought reflected positively on me). Now that I read job applications, its not as uncommon as one might assume/hope. Forwarding articles like the one referred to above or this one : http://das.sagepub.com/content/14/2/191.abstract (Figures 3 and 4 might be sufficient) may help to politely educate your reference writers.