The LPL Allyship Auxiliary originated as a group of grad students who recognize that women expend a significant amount of time and emotional labor on gender diversity and equity issues, while men do not due to the societal and patriarchal structure supporting us. Consequently, the Allyship Auxiliary was created so we can clearly demonstrate our allyship by taking on some of the emotional workload that is too often left to women. To move the focus away from discussions focusing only on gender and encourage discussion of topics related to other axes of privilege/oppression, the group recently decided to change its name to LPL Allyship Auxiliary (formerly, Men's Auxiliary).
The group aims to meet around once a month, and be completely transparent about our ideas, discussions, and intentions. At our meetings we discuss literature relevant to diversity and equity issues, actions that we can perform to improve as allies, and methods through which we can educate other people in our field about those topics. We strongly encourage male-identifying individuals to attend our meetings, but emphasize that all are welcome.
Reading List
This is a non-exhaustive list of material that we can use, as men, to educate ourselves and improve as allies.
Double jeopardy in astronomy and planetary science: Women of color face greater risks of gendered and racial harassment - Clancy et al., (2017)
Stag Parties Linger: Continued Gender Bias in a Female-Rich Scientific Discipline - Isbell et al., (2012)
Survey of Academic Field Experiences (SAFE): Trainees Report Harassment and Assault - Clancy et al., (2017)
Decolonising Science Reading List - Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
A U.S./Canadian Race & Racism Reading List - Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
So you want to talk about race - Ijeoma Oluo
Equal Opportunity Astronomy: Articles & Resources - AstroBetter
A Step In Stepping Up – DPS 2015 Men’s Auxiliary - Andy Rivkin, David Grinspoon, and Bob Pappalardo