Are we reaching gender parity among Palaeontology authors?

Women remain underrepresented in almost all areas of STEM, especially at senior levels, with palaeontology being no exception. There is a widespread perception that the situation is improving, and that it is simply a matter of time before this improvement is reflected at higher career stages. However, there is strong evidence that formidable barriers remain for women in palaeontology. We must question how much progress towards gender equality has been made in order to continue on a path towards equity. With a view to contributing quantitative data to this discussion, we examine whether the proportion of women publishing in palaeontology is approaching parity, using data from the journal Palaeontology as a proxy for the discipline. This work was motivated by the sense that, despite increased representation of women, articles on palaeontological subjects almost never appear to have over 50% women authors. Indeed, we find that women account for less than 20% of authors and, perhaps more surprisingly, there has been no substantial increase in the proportion of women contributing to the journal over the past 20 years. The percentage of articles in which women make up more than 50% of authors remains unchanged. The proportion of articles on which women are absent from the author list is decreasing, but this partly reflects an increase in the average number of authors per article. Our findings match those found in broader studies of the scientific literature, including those within the biological and Earth Sciences, which generally find that women make up less than 30% of authors. We highlight important barriers that remain for women and other under-represented groups in science, and make several recommendations to help improve their representation in palaeontology. Key recommendations include: acknowledging and engaging with diversity issues; targeted recruitment of women to all levels of academic publishing; actively promoting individuals from all underrepresented groups, especially those at the intersections of multiple minoritized identities; and collecting relevant data and perspectives.