Displays

Earth and Planetary Sciences are characterized by a lack of gender and ethnic diversity across job sectors, particularly in academia and industry. This imbalance is not representative of current demographic distributions, neither of the general population at large nor the people completing tertiary education in these fields. Gender and ethnic diversity is correlated with improved performance and productivity: In academia as better indicators of research quality and successful grant applications; in industry as higher long-term profitability and better public perception of their corporate values. Despite this, the change has been slow in persuading institutions and companies to create systemic changes to harness this potential. 

Obstacles for inclusion are further amplified for Latinas who, after completing their degrees, navigate professional environments lacking representation and retention, prone to less promotion and access to opportunities. To address these issues, GeoLatinas was created with the mission to embrace, empower, and inspire Latinas worldwide to pursue and thrive in Earth and Planetary Science careers. 

GeoLatinas is a member-driven, circular organization, composed of six key and interactive groups: the (i) GeoLatinas Leadership Council (GLC) formed of active leaders and volunteers, further subdivided into six committees working on particular initiatives; (ii) GeoLatinas Ambassadors (GAs), representing regions, identifying local issues and needs, and leading local events and initiatives; (iii) GeoLatinas Local Teams (GLTs), adapting the GeoLatinas mission and objectives to universities and workplaces; (iv) Liaisons, acting as supporters and collaborators representing other societies from our geo-community; (v) Advisory Committee, formed of experienced women and men in academia and industry; and (vi) Board of Directors, also representing academia and industry.

Facilitated by social media and real-time communication technology, GeoLatinas has become an important networking platform not only for Latinas, but for other demographics for which our mission and objectives resonate. One year after its creation, GeoLatinas has 145 members in 24 countries (72% in academia and 17% in industry). In this presentation, we will share some of our experiences, describing how our initiatives have increased visibility of the talent and potential of Latinas in Earth and Planetary sciences, consequently increasing their access to opportunities, jobs and awards. Furthermore, we will show our impact in encouraging younger generations to identify different career paths, scholarships, research opportunities or jobs. Lastly, we will present key challenges and lessons learned, along with plans to improve long term diversity, inclusion, and retention across sectors in Earth and Planetary disciplines.

How to cite: Zuluaga, L. F., Crisóstomo-Figueroa, A., Gomez-Correa, A., Caballero-Gil, R. P., and Rodriguez, C.: GeoLatinas: Fostering an inclusive community to embrace, empower and inspire Latinas in Earth and Planetary Sciences, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-10878, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-10878, 2020.

Women in Geospatial+ is a professional network to promote gender-equality and diversity in the geospatial industry and academia. It started with a spontaneous call on Twitter one day before International Women’s Day in March 2019 and grew within nine months into a vibrant and active community with more than 800 registered members from all over the world and 3100+ followers on Twitter. The fast growing pace of this community is a sign that many of us still witness gender-bias in the workplace and more diversity-focused initiatives are needed.

This  community brings together women and other underrepresented genders in the geospatial field by providing a safe platform (Slack community) for open and honest communication and exchange. We promote and foster the professional development of our members by sharing geospatial news and job vacancies as well as articles about diversity and tips about leadership and career development. We also launched a year-long career mentorship program in September 2019.

Throughout the year we create opportunities to meet in person at geospatial conferences, where we regularly run “Career advancement” sessions, feature the work and achievements of women geospatial leaders and organise informal social events and meetups.

This presentation will highlight key activities of the Women in Geospatial+ network, tapping into some current facts and figures on diversity in the geospatial field. We will explain how to join the community and how you can contribute to its success and expansion. Let us change the status quo together by creating a strong network of Women in Geospatial+ leaders and changemakers.

How to cite: Wagemann, J. and Szeto, S.: Women in Geospatial+ - Changing the status-quo by creating a strong network of Women in Geospatial+ leaders and changemakers, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-5964, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-5964, 2020.

Research institutions play a key role in the innovation process, producing knowledge, interacting with  Universities, governmental bodies, private sector and other relevant stakeholders.

According to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2020, gender equality will not be achieved for 99.5 years.

A Research Institution has an ethical duty in order to set an example for the social community in building a working environment where gender equality is a natural element of the organization.

Furthermore, the promotion and integration of the gender dimension within a research institution  represents an added value in terms of excellence, creativity and competitiveness.A specific management approach is needed in order to ensure an equal presence in research groups, offering opportunities for access to funds and research projects, adopting policies for the work life balance.

This document is aimed to present the overall measures and the planned actions developed within the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology for the promotion and integration of the gender dimension.

INGV, fully aware of the need to reach gender equity approves a Positive Action Plan which includes principles aimed at strengthening and enhancing female participation within geoscience community such the use of a respectful language, a diversified evaluation of the scientific production of female and male researchers in conjunction with maternity/paternity, a strong implementation of flexible work, a better organization of common working times.

Defining a joint stategy implies the mutual interaction of the overall key players among the organizational well-being, ensuring that physical, moral or social discrimination does not occur in the workplace.

Confidential Counsellor plays a crucial role in preventing, managing and solving discrimination, mobbing issues and harassment occurring in the workplaces.

We will present the ongoing activities aimed at enhancing the female component within INGV and the processes of facilitation of work organization and recognition of the extra working commitment.

We are fully aware that a real cultural revolution has been taking hold in recent decades and is progressing gradually towards goals increasingly aimed at total gender equality, but there is still a long way to go towards a better integration of the gender dimension.

The cultural development in the enhancement of gender balance in work organizations requires the affirmation of inclusive work cultures of a broad training plan that invests in the very idea of female participation.

How to cite: Sangianantoni, A., De Paola, V., Perfetto, V., Maracchia, G., and Hunstad, I.: Working towards a better integration of the gender dimension: the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia approach, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-7200, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-7200, 2020.

The gender gap is measured globally by the World’s Economic Forum in four key areas: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. According to the 2020 Global Gender Gap index, it will take us nearly 100 years to get gender parity. Also according to the World’s Economic Forum report, if we consider the fastest growing professions of the future, a critical data reveals a problematic situation: women form only 26% among people with AI and data skills, 15% among people with engineering skills and 12% among those with cloud computing skills. Education is thus an important key to embed gender parity into the future. Today, 55% of working-age women are in the labour market, against 78% of men. This gap can increase even more if we do not include young girls in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) courses. Gender issues concerning access, permanence and ascension of women in STEM careers, in general, relates to various aspects. Between other elements, we point the underrepresentation of women in science communications, sexual or moral harassment caused by professors and colleagues during undergraduate and graduate ages, or the overload of housework for girls, when compared to boys, during early school ages. In other words, gender imbalance in STEM careers is the result of a series of structured oppression suffered by women of all ages. In this context, we developed a set of laboratory routines based on the work of female scientists, directed to students from 12 to 18 years old, at the Planaltina Campus of the University of Brasília. The University of Brasília is the 4th most prominent university in Brazil, and its resources are distributed between four camps. Planaltina Campus is situated 40 km away from the main campus. In recent research, it has been shown that only 30% of Planaltina young population has the intention of accessing the university. From those, only 15% pretend to study exact and earth sciences. Thinking about the World’s Economic Forum alert about professions of the future, we felt the necessity of promoting a program to capacitate, inform and demystify tabus from exact sciences among high school students, especially among girls. The activities start with the rescue of a prominent female scientist in the field that will be worked on that day, followed by a pedagogical transcript of her work. We conduct a hands-on laboratory within the University of Brasília infrastructure. The idea of the labs is to work as a school reinforcement on natural sciences disciplines, and to give visibility to women in science, improving issues such as underrepresentation and mistrust in women work. We will present the results of an implemented questionnaire and also comment about the challenges of our experience.

How to cite: Maciel, S., Braga Alcantara, G., Gomide, C., and Franca, G. S.: Representing women in science: designing laboratory activities based on women’s work, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-8586, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-8586, 2020.

How to cite: Hann, M., Dattner, F., Gray, T., Feeney, M.-E., and Hassenberger, D. and the Homeward Bound Project Gender Fact Sheet Team: Mother Nature Needs Her Daughters: A Homeward Bound global review and fact sheet investigating gender inequality in STEMM, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-5898, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-5898, 2020.

How to cite: Fisher, J. and Boulton, S.: Girls into Geoscience: inspiring the next generation of female Earth Scientists , EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-10232, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-10232, 2020.

The Raw Materials Community of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT RM) is supporting the implementation of a project which aims to attract 13-18 year old girls to study geosciences and related engineering disciplines, with the objective of improving the gender balance in these fields at entry level to tertiary education and the workplace. The project ‘ENGIE – Encouraging Girls to Study Geosciences and Engineering’ will focus on informing and inspiring secondary school female students as career decisions are made generally in this period of their lives. It started in January 2020 and will last for three years.

ENGIE will support awareness raising activities in more than 20 European countries to encourage 13-18 years old girls to study geosciences and geo-engineering. Public bodies, schools, research centres, universities, professional organisations and on gender equality will be brought together, and strategies will be formulated on the basis of European and international benchmarking. Best practices and success stories will be taken over from countries where STEM education and geo-sciences have already been successfully promoted among young women (Australia, Canada, US) and also from leading European countries in this area, such as Sweden or Finland. Experiences gained during the implementation of national actions will be used for the formulation of longer-term strategies so that the expected higher interest for these professions can be satisfied by proper education and career opportunities in Europe.
The ENGIE project will focus on raising the girls’ interest in a well-defined area: geosciences and geo-engineering. This will help the project partners to formulate very clear messages. One of the challenges in supporting gender equality in research is the shortage of knowledge on how to effectively encourage and sustain ayoung woman’s interest in STEM. ENGIE will address this issue by conducting research and gathering comprehensive knowledge on what keeps women away from geosciences and engineering. In the frame of the project, an extensive communication strategy will be developed and progress will be monitored. Innovative approach of this project relies on the creation of a platform for the co-operation between competent international partners, who are strongly interested in tackling this shortage (future employers inclusive).

ENGIE will be implemented by the cooperation of 26 institutions. The partnership involves 3 universities (University of Miskolc, Luleå University of Technology and University of Zagreb), 2 research centres (Italian National Research Council and La Palma Research Centre) and a European-level professional geoscience organisation (European Federation of Geologists). 20 national member associations of EFG will also take part in the project implementation as Linked Third Parties. By their contribution, the project activities will be extended to more than 20 European countries.

How to cite: Cseko, A., Hartai, E., Fernandez, I., Abrahamsson, L., Kolenković Močilac, I., Giuliani, S., and Ortgea Rodriguez, A.: ENGIE - promoting gender balance in the area of earth science and engineering, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-11101, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-11101, 2020.

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.

How to cite: Giles, S., Warnock, R., Dunne, E., Saupe, E., Soul, L., and Lloyd, G.: Are we reaching gender parity among Palaeontology authors?, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-11767, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-11767, 2020.

Girls on Ice Switzerland runs tuition-free wilderness science expeditions for young women from diverse backgrounds. The glacier expeditions interweave science (e.g. glaciology, geomorphology, environmental aspects), art and mountaineering. Girls on Ice Switzerland does not only intend to transfer scientific knowledge, but also aims on a general understanding of the scientific process, on a mediation of nature experiences and on an enhanced self-confidence and self-evaluation. A combination of inquire-based teaching, experiential learning, and the tangibility of climate change science in the alpine environment provide a unique teaching environment. This particular framework allows to communicate science to non- and potential not-yet-peers, to facilitate insights into the scientific work through hands-on experiences, and to enhance the participants’ general interest in science.

Between 2017 and 2019, Girls on Ice Switzerland organised four glacier expeditions, which were evaluated in detail by pre- and post-inquiry of the participants. Through both quantitative and qualitative methods, the evaluation focused on the (i) perception of science, (ii) scientific knowledge, (iii) critical thinking, (iv) interest in science, (v) self-assessment and self-efficiency and (vi) connection to nature. It showed that the programme overall reached its initially set aims and that it particularly fosters critical thinking, increases physical and intellectual self-confidence and strengthens confidence in women.

Here, we will present the programme Girls on Ice Switzerland, its link to Inspiring Girls Expeditions and the overall philosophy, but also highlight evaluation results that help to optimize the science communication by demanding a clear set of goals for different characteristics of the programme. The unique women-only environment is ideal to encourage young women to start studies within the field of natural sciences and strengthen young female scientists to pursue their academic career.

How to cite: Naegeli, K., Bouscary, C., Coch, C., Fridrich, A., Gugerli, R., Habermann, M., Hellmann, L., Kronenberg, M., Langhammer, L., Mollaret, C., Schaub, Y., Schwikowski, M., Wee, J., and Wenner, M.: Girls on Ice Switzerland – using immersion to inspire interest in science, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-12911, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-12911, 2020.

Having programming skills is becoming increasingly important for many geoscientists who wish to make their research as reproducible as it can possibly be. One of the most common languages of choice is the R language for statistical computing.

The R community, as other programming communities, suffers from underrepresentation of women and minority genders (e.g., trans men, non-binary, etc) in every role and area of participation, whether as leaders, package developers, conference speakers, conference participants, educators, or users.

As a diversity initiative, the mission of R-Ladies is to achieve proportionate representation by encouraging, inspiring, and empowering people of genders currently underrepresented in the R community. R-Ladies’ primary focus, therefore, is on supporting underrepresented-gender R enthusiasts to achieve their programming potential, by building a collaborative global network of R leaders, mentors, learners, and developers to facilitate individual and collective progress worldwide.

R-Ladies Global received funding for the first time in 2016, from the R Consortium (r-consortium.org, a Linux Foundation Project) and was quickly promoted to be a top-level project due to “its big commitment within the R community”.

The organization is articulated into ‘chapters’, groups hosting events in cities or remotely, the latter for the benefit of everyone, regardless of geographic location and personal circumstances. To date, R-Ladies fosters the development of 180 chapters organizing more than 2000 events in 50 countries around the world with more than 60,000 members and over 70,000 followers across the various Twitter accounts.

In this presentation, we will illustrate all the activities R-Ladies runs to support minority genders: from meetups (in-person meetings, where individuals can learn about new technologies and algorithms free of charge) to the R-Ladies directory (https://rladies.org/directory/), the abstract reviewers’ network (tinyurl.com/rladiesrevs), the Slack channels, the mentorship program, and much more.

How to cite: Bellini Saibene, Y., Vitolo, C., LeDell, E., Frick, H., and Acion, L.: R-Ladies Global, a worldwide organisation to promote gender diversity in the R community., EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-20530, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-20530, 2020.

The geosciences are an undeniably male-dominated sector (80/20 male/female in 2008). This has led to a loss of female talent and lack of diversity within the sector. Retention of female students in the geosciences is highest where students can identify with same gender career/industry leaders (Hernandez et al., Geosphere, Vol. 14,6, 2018), yet with few obvious female role models, poor female student retention has become a self-perpetuating problem. Girls into Geoscience was instigated in Plymouth in 2014 to interrupt this cycle. Girls around the ages of 16-17 and with any level of geoscience knowledge were invited to Plymouth to be introduced to the subject by leading females in the geoscience field. The annual event has proven so successful that it has now been taken up in Ireland.

Girls into Geoscience – Ireland (GiGie) is now at the end of its second year, having run three successful events across Ireland. GiGie has taken the form of day-long events which incorporate workshops, talks, networking and field-trip style elements. These events have been hosted in academic institutions and rotate annually to reach multiple areas of Ireland which often have limited access to STEM activities. So far, events have been hosted in Cork, Galway and Dublin. 100% of participants at the Cork event fed back that they were more likely to study geoscience, and similarly 83% of participants in Galway were now more likely to consider studying geosciences. 100% of Galway participants also had an increased understanding of geoscience careers, which is important considering the negative perceptions that are commonly attributed to careers in the geosciences. Suggestions from the events in Cork and Galway led us to incorporate a field-trip style element to the day, which was run for the first time in Dublin. The future of GiGie is bright. A planned expansion of the programme could lead to its most successful year yet. Across in the UK, expansion is also in action with further events taking place in Scotland, and a junior event being developed in Leicester. Gender balance is far from equal yet, but change is happening. We look forward to seeing Girls into Geoscience flourish.

“I loved (that) it was for girls. (It) made me feel more confident and that its possible to do science as a girl” – Participant, Cork.

How to cite: Wallace, E., McAuliffe, F., Blowick, A., McNamara, M., Morris, E., Owen, A., Boulton, S., and Fisher, J.: Girls into Geoscience - Ireland, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-15919, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-15919, 2020.