EOS5.1

How to cite: Inno, L., Rotundi, A., and Piccialli, A.: COVID-19 lockdown effects on gender inequality: the case of the Italian Astronomy & Astrphysics Community, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-3231, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-3231, 2021.

The rapid spread out of the COVID-19 continuous to have a great impact on not only social life but also academic and educational activities. The geoscience fields in Japan are no exception. The committee for Diversity Management and Talent Pool, Japan Geoscience Union (JpGU) launched an urgent survey between 28 June and 9 July, 2020 by. The goal of the survey was quantifying the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on research activities and work-life balance for geoscientists in Japan. The questionnaire was published two languages: Japanese and English. Although the questionnaire system was opened for a short period of time (12 days), over 400 answers were obtained, of which 351 in Japanese and 65 in English. The results revealed that activities of female geoscientists have been damaged by increasing burden of housework and childcare during confinement period by a state of coronavirus emergency, more than male. We present here some highlights of these results of COVID-19 survey by JpGU.

In the free text of the responses, there were specific and earnest appeals regarding the support necessary and expected. The support requests were targeted to various entities, namely JpGU, workplaces, schools, etc. The most common requests made to JpGU were to provide online educational materials and online lecture know-how, and to introduce virtual options to future conferences. Survey responders with childcare responsibilities pointed out the difficulties to attend conferences from home.

In conclusion, we need to reevaluate our consideration for the diverse members, possessing various background and impairments, who are easily left behind in the rapid changes, in academic activities due to COVID-19.

How to cite: Hori, S., R., Abe, N., and Oguchi, T., C. and the The Committee for Diversity Management and Talent Pool of JpGU: An impact of COVID-19 pandemic on research activities and work-life balance for geoscientists in Japan, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-8565, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-8565, 2021.

The European Research Council (ERC), Europe’s premiere funding agency for frontier research, views equality of opportunities as an essential priority and a vital mission to ensure credibility in the review process. The ERC monitors closely various demographic data yearly on every call and has taken actions to tackle imbalances and potential implicit and explicit biases.

This presentation is focused on demographic data for the three main funding schemes: Starting Grant, Consolidator Grant and Advanced Grant. Attention is directed mainly to gender and geographic distribution. The demographics presented here consider various stakeholders, such as reviewers, applicants and grantees.

After more than 10 years of existence, ERC data provides an insight on demographical evolution. In the first framework programme (FP7, 2007-2013), 25% of applicants were women. In the last years (Horizon 2020, 2014-2019), this percentage increased by 4%, with 29% of women applied for ERC grants. In the same periods of time, the share of women as grantees has also increased from 20% to 29%. In the last years, men and women enjoy equal success rates. This presentation also sheds light on the population diversity of ERC reviewers, both panel members and external reviewers.

The ERC knows that work to ensure equality of opportunities is never finished. This presentation analyses critically the institutional efforts and considers possible steps to consolidate the accomplished results.

How to cite: Jesus-Rydin, C. and Fariña-Busto, L.: Diversity in ERC populations: applicants, grantees and reviewers, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-12727, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-12727, 2021.

Geoscience is being increasingly embedded in collaborative research related to the management of natural resources and the environment, alongside engineering and social sciences.  Masters students exercise rigorous choices in selecting their study courses that enhance employability, considering carefully the kind of learning experience they are likely to have. The interdisciplinary M.Sc. programme ‘Global Management of Natural Resources’ (in Chemical Engineering, University College London, UK) has generated a lot of interest since its initiation in 2016. The geoscience module ‘Geology for Global Managers and Engineers’ (GGME), is a part of the above taught programme, studied by students from diverse academic background considered in four sets, namely, set 1 (geologists), set 2 (chemists, environmentalists, ecologist) set 3 (engineers) and set 4 (others, without science background such as economics and finances).

Traditional assessment methods for geology include written examination papers, field trip reports and essays and, practical based on hand specimen and microscopic studies. But, the role of assessment is no longer solely associated with awarding a grade but, should enhance inclusion and serve as effective teaching tools (Hounsell et al., 2005; Kaur et al., 2017). This can be better achieved by applying diverse assessment methods taking into account the different skill sets of the students, ensuring fairness and consistency with consideration of increased workload for both lecturers and students (Brown, 2012). Here we studied the effectiveness of multiple assessment for the taught GGME module including a combination of software based coursework, fieldtrip activities and hands on specimen studies, spread over the term, followed by an end of term multiple-choice questions’ based sit-in examination.

Our study indicates that prior academic background did affect students’ scores in the assessments. The students from set 4 had the lowest average score, although ~ 15 % attained higher marks comparable to set 1, attributable to a combination of factors including the set multiple assessments. The students performed better in course works involving smaller learning components where there was more time for reflection. But, they scored lower when the course works were set too early or late during the term. Assessing the same learning outcome by more than one method with provided feedback worked as effective, continuous learning activities with a reduced attainment gap in the final examination between the students from sets 1 and 4, for components already covered in the course works. Noteworthy that although the students were from diverse ethnic background, there was no attainment gap attributable to their ethnicity. A combination of assessment methods with both individual and group work components proved to be effective in closing any attainment gaps between diverse groups of students.

References

Brown, S. (2012). AISHE-J 4(2), 85.1–85.12.

Hounsell, D., Entwistle, N., Anderson, C., Bromage, A., Day, K.,  Hounsell, J., Land, R., Litjens, J., McCune, V., Meyer, E., Reimann, N. and Xu, R. (2005). Final Report to the Economic and Social Research Council, on TLRP Project L139251099.

Kaur, A., Noman, M. and Nordin, H.  (2017). 42(5), 756-771.

How to cite: Basu, S.: The importance of implementing diverse assessment methods in geosciences to promote inclusion, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-15093, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-15093, 2021.

Many institutes have equal opportunity or gender equality officers. They are usually responsible to ensure that equal opportunity and gender equality laws are applied at their institute but also offer local support. The actions from these officers might greatly help to improve equal opportunities and gender equality.

At MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Germany, a collective of three women was elected in January 2019 as decentralised women’s representatives. Our overarching goal is to advice and support all scientists and students at MARUM, as well as the director and committees, in the implementation of the legally-fixed gender equality duty (Bremisches Hochschulgesetz / Higher Education Act of the State of Bremen). As such, we have implemented several actions to promote gender equality at MARUM.

With the present contribution, we would like to present the activities with which we have been engaged and discuss how successful they were, in order to help other gender equality officers in their role. We also hope to hear about other successful actions that have been implemented in order to broaden our actions. Generally, we would like to discuss ideas of useful future actions and exchange with colleagues in this field. A long-term goal is to create a repository of actions which can be taken by equal opportunity and gender equality officers.

Our actions were implemented at a range of levels: directly with the women from MARUM (e.g. network meetings, support in case of conflict, pregnancy checklist), sensibilisation (e.g. invited talk on gendered wording in job advertisement, workshop on writing letters of recommendation, screening of “Picture a Scientist”), institutional (e.g. bi-annual meeting with director, meetings with the other gender equality actors at the university), monitoring (e.g. analysis of the gender of job applicants and selected candidates).

Most actions are very beneficial and well received. We feel it is profitable to act at these different levels, to provide support directly to the women, but also to inform a wide range of actors on gender inequalities. The resources we have at MARUM allows a funding of some activities, which is particularly useful. Because we are scientists ourselves, we have a good and productive exchange with the other women on a peer level. We are greatly encouraged and supported by the fact that people in leadership positions take us seriously and carefully listen to our opinion and feedback. A difficulty which we encounter is that, although the position of women’s representative is officially recognised by the law, we are not given specific time for it. Therefore, the work that we do as gender equality officer is done in addition to our scientific work.

How to cite: Lefebvre, A., Bender, V. B., and Schnieders, L.: Gender equality officers: which activities can we do to improve gender equality in STEM? Examples from MARUM women’s representatives, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-4012, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-4012, 2021.

South Africa has an extraordinary record of human evolution spanning from our early hominin ancestors in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site, through to more recent evidence for the emergence of modern humans.  Human evolution research in South Africa has received international attention for nearly a hundred years and has been vast and broad in terms of research foci, as well as researcher participation. However, the leading researchers in South Africa have been almost entirely men, with women and people of colour under-represented, and black women largely absent. Since its inception in 2016, the Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI) at the University of Cape Town (UCT) has developed a tangible plan to change this: to disrupting, transform and decolonise the long held patriarchal narrative of human evolution in South Africa. Our intervention has a three-tiered design, focusing on the institutional (UCT), the current undergraduate and postgraduate student body, and the public. Using HERI, we are creating more inclusive and diverse spaces for the production and dissemination of high-quality research into human origins, through both physical changes and interactive programmes (e.g. seminars, workshops). We bring young, black women into this space, facilitate cohort-building, and give them knowledge, skills and courage to be the future of scholarship into human evolution in South Africa. We have programmes in place to support and graduate a new cohort of young, black woman PhD students, as well as postdoctoral support that will provide a stepping-stone for these young women to continue in their scientific careers. Field camps are used to demystify the fieldwork experience and encourage interaction between undergraduate and postgraduate women – as well as academics – and help younger women receive the skills they need, as well as the experiences necessary to spark their interest and imagine themselves entering the discipline. Finally, in order to reach beyond the bounds of higher education institutes and out into the public domain, we are developing a new, permanent museum exhibition on human evolution at the Iziko Museum of South Africa, in Cape Town. The exhibition reframes the human origins narrative to centre on the diversity of all people in South Africa, exploring how evolution produced that diversity through a lens of inclusivity and aiming to demystify the topic in an environment that is not alienating but welcoming.

How to cite: Pickering, R., Ackermann, R., Black, W., Sahle, Y., and Wilkins, J.: How HERI (Human Evolution Research Institute) is disrupting, transforming and decolonising long held patriarchal narratives of human evolution in South Africa., EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-9196, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-9196, 2021.

The Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion in Geoscience (EDIG) initiative was created to better understand the experiences of the geoscience community with respect to prejudice, inequity, bias, exclusion, sexism, and discrimination. EDIG aims to provide a platform for learning for the wider geoscience community and promote progressive action to make geoscience more inclusive and equitable.

As part of our initiatives, we organised the virtual EDIG conference in December 2020 entitled: A time to listen, learn, and act. This virtual event aimed to facilitate learning on equality, diversity, and inclusion related topics relevant to the geosciences. It hosted sessions on where we have come from, where we are now, and where we are going. The conference especially focused on raising awareness around the challenges experienced by minoritized geoscientists, helping to involve more people in these conversations. The conference hosted 17 speakers on a range of different topics, from the history of diversity in geoscience, to how we can become more inclusive, to how we can move forward together, as well as a workshop on unconscious bias sponsored by the Institute of Geologists of Ireland (IGI) and the Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geology (iCRAG).

Prior to the EDIG conference, we launched a global survey to carry out research on equality, diversity, and inclusion in the geosciences. The survey asked people about their own experiences (or lack of) around EDI related topics. The survey received a large response, with 708 participants from 58 countries. The main themes from the survey data were used to structure our conference programme.

We will present the results of this survey, and our experiences of the EDIG conference. With these and future events we hope to bring together several online initiatives, establish a community of support and learning, and to help us all come together to make the geosciences more welcoming, accessible, inclusive, and equitable.

How to cite: Doran, A., Bidgood, A., Blowick, A., Craig, J., Ekandjo, H., Fox, A., Foxe, J., Franklin, J., Hitzman, M., McAuliffe, F., Neofitu, R., Torremans, K., Twigg, H., and Wallace, E.: Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion in Geoscience (EDIG) initiative: A time to listen, learn, and act., EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-11050, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-11050, 2021.

In recent years, several documents have been published in Europe on the shortage of skilled employees in key scientific professions. Geosciences, especially the raw materials and mining engineering sectors are no exception. One possible factor that contributes to this phenomenon is that the overall gender pattern in geosciences is imbalanced. It is characterised, more or less, by men in almost all parts of the business clusters, in society and professional communities as well as in education, research & innovation and in policy & decision making. The project ENGIE aims to improve the situation by turning the interest of young girls to study geosciences and geo-engineering with the help of a stakeholder collaboration network implementing a set of concrete actions in more than 20 EU countries.

The project is funded by EIT RawMaterials and started in January 2020 and, despite the challenges caused by COVID-19, it has achieved some significant results. First and foremost, the recent status of geo-education and the interest of young girls for geosciences was assessed via a concise survey targeting specifically secondary school students and teachers. This survey also aimed to identify any possible bottlenecks dissuading young girls to embark on a geoscientific profession. In addition to a comprehensive analysis and national workshops in 20 countries, an international online event was organised with the participation of successful women – all being role models within the global geoscientific and engineering community – in order to better understand the motivation that influenced their career choices, as well as obstacles that they were facing pursuing their career choices.

Regarding the actions focused on the target group, we organised an online video contest where girls were asked to film what they think geoscientists do at work. Additionally, some geo-activities linked to Researchers' Night events were held throughout Europe during autumn 2020. However, most of the ENGIE actions targeting young girls are planned to be carried out in 2021 and 2022 and should include the following: activities organised at University Open Days and Girls’ Day side events, family science events and school science clubs, fieldtrips, mine visits, mentoring programmes, Researchers’ Nights geoscience events, webinars, photo contest for girls, methodology course for science teachers and last but not least publishing the ENGIE Magazine. The current health crisis will, however, undoubtedly have an effect on the nature and or the schedule of the implementation of these actions as many of them might need to be moved to the online spheres or might be delayed by a few months.

The implementation of these actions at the national level will serve as the basis for the development of a long-term EU-level initiative, bringing together a stakeholder network focused on the continuous motivation of girls to embark on geoscientific careers.

Thus, the prolongation of project activities, supported by a sustainability plan, is envisaged. It is expected that future employers will be willing to invest in maintaining the ENGIE network, a 'network that works’ and thus help create a strong and more gender-balanced workforce in Europe.

How to cite: Cseko, A., Hartai, É., Majoros, L., Leskó, M., Johansson, K., Heimann, S., Giuliani, S., Torregiani, A., Łapińska-Viola, R., Pino de Juana, I., Ortega Rodriguez, A., Kolenković Močilac, I., Maričić, A., Allington, R., Stein, A., Miklovicz, T., and López, M.: ENGIE Promoting gender balance in the area of earth science and engineering, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-12986, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-12986, 2021.

Substantial differences in academia and industry’s working culture create challenges in establishing collaborations and raise obstacles for professionals transitioning across sectors. For minoritised groups and young generations in Latin America, the absence of role models in leadership positions, language barriers, lack of staff retention, gender discrimination and non-inclusive working spaces result in an even more challenging environment. 

In light of current and historical social challenges that our demographics and other marginalised groups face, GeoLatinas’ visionary purpose offers a platform to empower Latinas in Earth and Planetary sciences. Our community intends to create an inclusive, safe space for students, scientists and professionals from different backgrounds to converge. Since its foundation in 2018, GeoLatinas has established synergies between academia and industry by actively encouraging participation with other organisations and professional associations, and among its members. The intentional balance between academia and industry’s perspectives —as reflected in our circular organisational structure— has allowed GeoLatinas to effectively embrace professionals at different career stages. As a result, we have built a community to share experiences, personal successes, challenges, and coping mechanisms. We aim to mitigate barriers that prevent the successful transition between sectors by developing and implementing initiatives. In this way, we strengthen connections in our network and our community, focusing on key best practices and innovative actions for change. 

At GeoLatinas, we focus on nurturing, promoting and fostering leadership, teamwork, and collaboration in our members to thrive in academia and industry. Our organisation provides visibility and access to role models around the world. They represent a wide spectrum of knowledge, experience and background, offering students and professionals a platform to strengthen their skills in a safe environment. During a nurturing phase, GeoLatinas stimulates members’ accountability and individual efforts through the creation and proactive management of local teams and initiatives. Their implementation leads to the promoting phase, where we motivate representation and leadership by recognising and broadcasting our community’s accomplishments worldwide in the GeoLatinas Newsletter and social media channels. Initiatives focused on career development, like our Mentoring programme and the PERLA (Professional exchange for Resilience, Leadership and Advancement) initiative, facilitate direct communication of professionals working in academia and industry with our members. These actions create exposure and awareness of real-world barriers faced in both sectors, providing strategies to address them. As a result, our leaders thrive in project management, delegation, negotiation or collaborative teaching, applicable in every professional environment. Other initiatives, like our Scholarship & Jobs database gather data that our members use to find academic and industry positions, while our Dry Runs & Peer Review subcommittee provides members with feedback on, for example, their application process. Finally, in a fostering phase, a collaborative culture allows us to put our gained skills and outputs from the GeoLatinas’ initiatives at the service of the broader scientific community, leading to the emergence of new role models.

GeoLatinas intentional efforts have proven that nurturing, promoting and fostering members in impactful platforms can lead to career advances to stimulate collaborations and support career transitions within our community, bringing academia and industry closer.

How to cite: Guatame-García, A., Barragán Montilla, S., Gómez Correa, M. A., Rodríguez-Rondón, C., Crisóstomo-Figueroa, A., Caballero-Gill, R. P., Llano-Ocampo, C., González Arismendi, G., Balza Morales, A., Guerra, C., and Avila Velasquez, D. I.: GeoLatinas’ vision: Nurturing, promoting and fostering leadership, teamwork and collaboration to sustain synergies between academia and industry, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-10841, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-10841, 2021.

Women in Geospatial+ is a professional network to promote gender-equality and diversity in the geospatial industry and academia. We are a vibrant and active community with more than 2,200 registered members from all over the world and over 14,000 followers on Twitter & LinkedIn. We have a range of activities all with the aim to inspire, unite and empower us as individuals but also us as a community.

This community brings together women and other people from underrepresented gender backgrounds in the geospatial field by providing a safe platform on Slack for open communication and exchange, which is especially crucial for networking during the COVID-19 era. 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 regularly run online career development workshops and panel discussions. Each week, we post a profile on LinkedIn to feature the work and achievements of women geospatial leaders. In 2020, our second international mentorship programme cohort grew to over 110 participants. We also launched a global speakers database which allows event organisers to search for and invite speakers from underrepresented gender backgrounds. 

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: Szeto, S. H., Wagemann, J., Porter, H., Omoja, S., and Vrinceanu, C.: Creating community and empowering underrepresented geospatial professionals at Women in Geospatial+, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-15331, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-15331, 2021.

Soapbox Science is quite a novel public outreach platform that was initiated in the UK in 2011 to promote women in science, and that was spread worldwide since then. Between 2011 and 2018, 40 cities hosted the initiative in not less than 8 countries over 4 continents, and in 2020, despite the pandemic, 56 events were organized in 14 countries around the world. 

In 2019, a small team of scientists and science communicators from two Belgian Scientific Federal Institutes decided to organise a Soapbox Science event in Belgium to promote the visibility and the role of women in science in Belgium. The first Belgian event took place in fall 2020, not in the centre of Brussels as initially planned, but as a virtual event live-streamed via YouTube and Facebook due to physical limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

We present an overview of the preparation and the conduct of this first Soapbox Science Brussels event, and describe the motivations, challenges, issues and opportunities encountered throughout the process, as well as the outcome and perspectives of Soapbox Science in Belgium.

How to cite: Bingen, C., Pham, L. B. S., Lamort, L., Lefever, K., Piccialli, A., and Yseboodt, M.: Promotion of women in science: the Soapbox Science outreach platform in Belgium, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-8010, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-8010, 2021.

The roots of modern geoscience lie in early colonial principles that land could belong to those willing to use its products, regardless of indigenous territories and practices. The production of geoscience knowledge has therefore been historically tied to a desire to explain the distribution and extractability of resources, largely for the benefit of the colonising force. This knowledge now has an essential role to play in equitable and sustainable development, but it cannot be successfully applied without diverse representation amongst geoscientists. However, Geoscience in the Global North is disproportionately white. Following on from the work of Bernard and Cooperdock in the USA, we highlight dismal representation data from Geography, Earth and Environmental Science (GEES) disciplines in UK HE and make recommendations for positive action based on evidenced effective practice.

Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences are the three worst Physical Science subjects for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic student undergraduate participation in UK HE, and are very poor for retention of these students into postgraduate research (PGR). Physical Geography had just 5.2% PGR students who identified as Black, Asian, Mixed or Other (HESA data categories) in 2018/19. On average, over the past 5 years just 1.4% of postgraduate Geology PGR students were Black (HESA, 2020). By comparison, in the 2011 Census, 18.5% of UK 18-24 year olds were from Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic backgrounds, and 3.8% were Black. In two years out of the last five, no Black women have started PGR study in Geology or Physical Geography. Retention of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Physical Geography and Environmental Science students into PGR was worse in 2018/2019 than over the five years from 2014 to 2019; the situation is not improving with time (HESA, 2020)

We summarise well-documented factors involved in inequity in research training across UK HE, and review subject-specific structural and cultural barriers to ethnic diversityin GEES subjects. These include early pipeline issues around access to nature, a scarcity of diverse role models, careers perceptions, and a lack of acknowledgement that the geosciences are deeply rooted in colonialism and white power.

Our recommendations are wide-reaching, and build upon effective practice elsewhere. We take a whole-pipeline approach, making proposals that include both advocacy to remove barriers to entry (for example by combatting structural bias in application processes and accreditation requirements), and action to broaden participation (for example, by creating paid ambassador and internship schemes, and through decolonisation and inclusive pedagogic redesign).

We must acknowledge the hostile environments that deter ethnic minority students from applying to, and continuing with, our discipline.  We must address bias and be actively anti-racist.  We must act now, to create a modern geoscience research culture that reflects the diverse nature of the planet we study.

How to cite: Newton, A., Dowey, N., Barclay, J., Fernando, B., Giles, S., Houghton, J., Jackson, C., Khatwa, A., Lawrence, A., Mills, K., Rogers, S. L., and Williams, R.: Recommendation for combatting the diversity crisis in Geography, Earth and Environmental Science research; perspectives from the UK, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-1741, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-1741, 2021.

Background

Wikipedia is an open source, web-based encyclopedia, allowing anonymous and registered users to create, edit and improve articles. A survey in 2018 showed that as many as 90% of Wikipedia's editors were male and as many as 81% of contributors were from the Global North [1].  

In addition, there are fewer contributions about women, especially in STEM fields, and they are usually less developed [2]. In October 2014, only 15.53% of English Wikipedia's biographies were about women [3]. The WikiProject Women in Red was founded in July 2015 with the objective to address this gender bias in Wikipedia content. They succeeded in increasing the above-mentioned percentage to 18.71% as of 11 January 2021 [2].

Today, Wikipedia is within the 20 most popular websites [4] and every month it attracts more than 1 billion unique visitors [5]. Wikipedia therefore has a huge potential to change publics perception of who is doing science and what a scientist ‘looks’ like.

(Women) planetary scientists on Wikipedia?

In June 2020, there were only 189 planetary scientist biographies on the English Wikipedia, including 48 biographies of female planetary scientists (25%). This percentage is in agreement with the percentage of women in the International Astronomical Union from all ESA’s Member States (24%) [6], but planetary scientists are clearly underrepresented on Wikipedia. Many of them either do not have a Wikipedia biography yet, or if they do, they are often misclassified under the category of “astronomers” or “astrophysicists”.

A Planetary Sciences Edit-a-thon    

The Diversity Committee of the Europlanet Society aims to highlight diversity within the planetary science community. Therefore, they organised, in collaboration with Women in Red and WikiDonne, the first Planetary Science Wiki Edit-a-thon during the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2020 [7]. An Edit-a-thon (‘edit marathon’) is an organized event where editors from an online community (such as Wikipedia in this case) write, translate and improve articles on a specific topic [2]. Thirty persons received a basic editing training, resulting in 1 new article and 5 translated ones. A small subgroup still meets every month to continue the project.

References

[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Insights/2018_Report

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Red  

[3] Eduardo Graells-Garrido, Mounia Lalmas, Filippo Menczer, "First Women, Second Sex: Gender Bias in Wikipedia", arXiv, 9 February 2015, p. 3.

[4] "Wikipedia.org Traffic, Demographics and Competitors". www.alexa.com. Retrieved October 1, 2019.

[5] https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/all-wikipedia-projects

[6] Piccialli A., et al., Participation of women scientists in ESA Solar System missions: a historical trend, Adv. Geosci., 53, 169–182, https://doi.org/10.5194/adgeo-53-169-2020, 2020.

[7] https://www.europlanet-society.org/epsc-2020-planetary-science-wiki-edit-a-thon/    

How to cite: Piccialli, A., Boban, C., Heward, A., Lefever, K., Vandaele, A. C., Molla, M., Noack, L., and Pearson, V.: EPSC 2020 Planetary Science Wiki Edit-a-thon, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-7982, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-7982, 2021.

This presentation first provides an overview of a recent opinion piece by the author published in University Affairs, titled “Celebrate diversity, embrace equity and cultivate inclusion”, and then reviews anonymously some of the feedbacks the author received from the community. A main message is that diversity is easy to define and measure, and thus manage, but equity and inclusion are not and require much greater effort. We need to be innovative in this effort, as inclusion and equity, unlike diversity, are essentially qualitative, possibly with social perceptions that vary over time.

References:

Razavi, S., (2020), Celebrate diversity, embrace equity and cultivate inclusion, University Affairs, In My Opinion (Accessible at https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/celebrate-diversity-embrace-equity-and-cultivate-inclusion/).

How to cite: Razavi, S.: Embracing equity and cultivating inclusion, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-761, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-761, 2021.

EGU, the European Geosciences Union, is Europe’s premier geosciences union, dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in the Earth, planetary, and space sciences for the benefit of humanity, worldwide. Every year, the EGU awards and medals programme recognises eminent scientists for their outstanding research contribution in the Earth, planetary and space sciences. In addition, it identifies the awardees as role models for the next generation of early career scientists to foster geoscience research.

Nominations for all the medals and awards are submitted every year online by 15 June by the members of the EGU scientific community. Any person can be nominated except the EGU president, vice-president council members (not including ex- officio members) and chairs of the EGU committees. The EGU Council, the medal and award committees’ members and the Union and division officers are committed to soliciting nominations of deserving individuals by avoiding conflicts of interest. Each EGU medal or award is selected through a rigorous assessment of the candidates and their merits through the respective committee. The procedures for nomination, selection of candidates and the time schedule are described in detail on EGU websites.

It is a strict necessity when recognizing scientific excellence by any scientific association providing equal opportunities and ensuring balance. The processes and procedures that lead to the recognition of excellence has to be transparent and free of gender biases. However, establishment of clear and transparent evaluation criteria and performance metrics in order to provide equal opportunities to researchers across gender, continents and ethnic groups can be challenging since the definition of scientific excellence is often elusive.

This presentation aims to present the experience and the efforts of the European Geosciences Union to ensure equal opportunities. Data and statistics will be presented in the attempt to provide constructive indications to get to the target of giving equal opportunities to researchers across gender, continents and ethnic groups.

How to cite: Blunier, T.: Equality of opportunities in geosciences: The EGU Awards Committee experience, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-651, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-651, 2021.

The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is the leading organisation for Earth, planetary and space science research in Europe. Each year the EGU holds a General Assembly that is the largest and most prominent European geosciences event, attracting over 16,000 scientists from all over the world. This presentation provides an overview of the geographical representation of participants to the EGU General Assembly in recent years.

The presentation focuses on a five-year dataset spanning 2015 to 2019 and provides an insight on growth rates of the different countries individually and in comparison to the EGU General Assembly average growth (38% during the period 2015-2019).

China has the fastest-growing representation at the EGU General Assembly with a growth rate close to 300% in the period 2015-2019. The growth rates of the Republic of Korea and Canada have also climbed, and now represent the second and third fastest-growing countries attending the EGU respectively, with growth rates just over 80%.

The representation of Central and Eastern European countries (also known as EU-13 countries) at the EGU General Assembly has also grown steadily at a rate comparable with the EGU average, i.e. around 38%. Western European countries are the most represented at the annual general assembly accounting on average for 58% of the total participants over the 2015-2019 period. In addition the participation of Western Europeans to the general assembly continues to grow at the EGU but a slightly slower pace 29% than for Eastern Europe, but at a rate similar to participants from the USA.

This analysis leads to the conclusion that participation at the EGU General Assembly has grown both in the total number of attendees and in their geographical diversity. The most striking shift in the representation of countries has been towards an increase in the participation of Asian countries (China, Taiwan, Rep. of Korea & Japan) that collectively now exceeds the participation of North American participants (USA + Canada). In particular, if the current rate of growth in participation is sustained by China over the coming years this dataset suggests that their representation will surpass that of the USA shortly. It was also clear that the EU-13 countries continue to participate in the EGU General Assembly in growing numbers and with particular representation in certain scientific divisions such as Soil System Sciences (SSS), Hydrological Sciences (HS) and Climate: Past, Present & Future (CL). Overall, the above data provide valuable guidance in how to shape future EGU actions to promote diversity, equality and inclusivity at the annual EGU meeting.

How to cite: Jesus-Rydin, C., Montanari, A., Wingate, L., Beniest, A., Popp, A., and van Rijsingen, E.: Geographical representation at EGU General Assemblies in the period of 2015-2019, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-12631, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-12631, 2021.

The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is the leading organisation for Earth, planetary and space science research in Europe. Each year the EGU holds its General Assembly (GA), which is the largest and most prominent geosciences event in Europe, attracting over 16,000 scientists from all over the world in the year 2019. In 2020 the General Assembly transitioned to a completely virtual format in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, with approximately 20,000 members participating. Using self-declared data provided by participants during the registration phase of the annual general assembly we were interested to learn how the attendance of Early Career Scientists (ECS) at the general assembly had evolved over recent years and especially during the transition to the fully online format. Within the EGU an ‘Early Career Scientist’ is defined as ‘a student, a PhD candidate or a practicing scientist who received their highest degree (e.g. BSc, MSc or PhD) within the past seven years’, with some exceptions to this time-frame that account for research career breaks. As ECS account for about half of the total EGU membership we tested whether there were any emerging trends in the database regarding the number of ECS attending the meeting between 2015 and 2020 and whether there were any shifts in the diversity of ECS with respect to gender and age during the same timeframe.

We observed a general increase (5-30%) in ECS participation from 2015 until 2020 irrespective of gender. In 2019, the total increase of all participants stalled, but the overall number of ECS participants still increased with 12%.

Around 55% of the ECS fall within the age-group ‘26-35 years' and a further 10% in the '18-25 years' group. These percentages have been very constant through the years, apart from the age-group ’36-45 years, which has seen a slight increase from 10-14% over the past years. All groups have seen an increase in the absolute number of ECS participants during the physical meetings. However, a continuation of this trend is less clear during the online GA, as about 60% of the ECS members refrained from sharing their age.

We also investigated to what extent ECS participate as conveners in scientific sessions. About 10-12% of the ECS members are active as conveners during the GA, with the majority self-declaring as male. Only during the virtual GA in 2020 did the number of women conveners equal the numbers for men. We observed an increase in the representation of ECS of the total convener’s pool from 30% to 43% during the physical GA’s. During the online GA in 2020 ECS representation was 31%.

One consideration with the ECS status of members, is that depending on someones career stage, privacy reasons, and the awareness of our members about the ECS definition, not all members who would qualify for the ECS status, are in our system as such, because it is a self-declared status. This data is extremely important as it allows the EGU to track the success and developments of initiatives that support ECS career and conference experiences.

How to cite: Beniest, A., Alves de Jesus-Rydin, C., Wingate, L., van Rijsingen, E., Popp, A., and Montanari, A.: Diversity amongst Early Career Scientist attendees and their participation at the annual EGU General Assembly: from in-person to online meetings, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-12031, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-12031, 2021.

The European Geosciences Union (EGU) recognises the importance of the principles of equality, diversity, and inclusion as a crucial foundation for the collaborative scientific research needed to answer fundamental scientific questions and address key societal and environmental challenges. As such, EGU is committed to improving the equality, diversity, and inclusion of opportunities within and beyond the Earth, planetary, and space science community, including providing a safe, open, accessible, and respectful environment for participants at all Union events. As a means of fostering diversity, conveners who are organising sessions at the annual EGU General Assembly have been asked to consider their team’s diversity with respect to career stage, gender, geography, and scientific approaches.    

To emphasise this guidance and further promote these principles, EGU piloted a new EDI logo in the EGU General Assembly 2021 programme. For a session to be awarded the new logo, it must have fulfilled all three of the following EDI criteria:

1. Include conveners from multiple countries and institutes, preferably with a diverse representation of geoscientists from the wider European community or beyond;
2. Have conveners from different career stages, including at least one ECS (but not only ECS); and
3. Include conveners that represent more than one form of gender identity. 

This presentation will discuss the foundations and evolution of this member-led proposal; the logo design; challenges encountered during its implementation and how these were solved; and initial data resulting from this initiative. The authors, on behalf of EGU’s Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Working Group, also welcome feedback regarding the implementation and effectiveness of the EDI logo initiative during this session and via email at edi@egu.eu.

How to cite: van der Beek, P., Jesus-Rydin, C., Beniest, A., and Cook, T.: New EGU General Assembly logo to promote the principles of equality, diversity, and inclusion in the Earth, planetary, and space sciences, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-14241, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-14241, 2021.

The first step for institutions committed to equality, diversity and inclusion is to know their demographics. This presentation includes descriptive statistics for 5 consecutive years (2015–2019) based on paid registrations to the physical EGU General Assembly. EGU data is not perfect nor complete, but provides an insightful overview of who attended and presented at the EGU General Assembly for a period of 5 years.

In total more than 71 000 participants attended the EGU General Assemblies during the years 2015-2019 from a wide range of countries. More than 11400 (16%) of the participants were from Germany, followed by almost 6400 (8.9%) from the UK, 5300 (7.4%) from France, 5000 (7.0%) from Italy, 4600 (6.5%) from the US, and 3500 (4.9%) each from Austria and China. We found that the number of participants to the EGU General Assembly has increased continuously from 2015 to 2019 and that the largest proportions of participants are aged between 26 and 45.

Among the PhD students attending there are 7 females for every 10 males, and among the regular members there are around 4 females for every 10 males. The proportion of female participants decreases with increasing age. However, the ratio of females to males among participants has continuously increased from 0.48 in 2015 to 0.51 in 2018. Four countries had more females than males attending the EGU General Assembly (Bulgaria, Morocco, Iceland and Slovenia).

There are great possibilities to present one’s research at the meetings with ninety percent of the participants as first author on presentations (2015-2018, 94% 2019) and there was no difference between females and males. More than half (52-61%) of the male participants had oral presentations, while slightly fewer (46-52%) of the female participants had oral presentations. The major differences in oral presentations are found between participants from different countries. Note that the data do not reveal the participants’ preferred choice of presentations, only the outcome at the meetings. Around 70% of the participants presented a poster, with no differences between genders, which indicate that men had more presentations than women. On average males had 6.5% more presentations per person. Finally a slightly higher proportion of the male participants were convenors (15-18% versus 12-15% for females).

EGU General Assembly is the largest geosciences conference in Europe and still growing. Understanding the demographic evolution of various groups is a critical tool for EGU governing body to draw targeted actions ensuring that procedures are fair and that all in the community are being and feeling included.

How to cite: Stadmark, J., Jesus-Rydin, C., and Conley, D. J.: Who attended and presented at EGU General Assemblies 2015-2019?, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-15004, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-15004, 2021.

The American Geophysical Union (AGU), a global scientific society of >60,000 members, has a series of initiatives underway to address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Earth and space sciences, including the well-known issues of harassment and its impact on women scientists, and the closely related issues of systemic racism, sexism, ableism, discrimination against LGBTQ community, and their related intersectional issues. Building on its earlier work of establishing an updated AGU Ethics Policy which defines harassment and discrimination as scientific misconduct, AGU has taken additional significant steps over the past 12 months to further advance Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) practices— including work lead by the AGU Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee to launch a public facing AGU D&I dashboard, steps under the updated AGU Strategic plan to provide additional resources for supporting a more equitable and inclusive culture, and work and commitments by AGU leadership to address systemic racism through its “Eight Deliberate Steps.”  This presentation will highlight new AGU DEI-related initiatives most recently underway, including the role of partnerships in helping to achieve the broader DEI culture change objectives, and the associated work across AGU Meetings, Publications, and Honors. Progress to date on these and other emerging new AGU Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI)-related resources and partnership initiatives, including metrics to track the impact of these changes, will be discussed.

How to cite: Williams, B., Fraiser, M., White, L., Asher, P., and Hanson, B.: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at AGU:  New Leadership Commitments and Progress Under an Updated Strategic Plan , EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-13133, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-13133, 2021.

An equitable and inclusive geosciences discipline requires a systemic cultural shift. Despite four decades of consideration and federal investment, persons identifying as both white and men overwhelmingly outnumber people from marginalized groups in geosciences courses of study and professions. Cultural shifts can be facilitated by leadership, and research indicates that diversity and inclusion initiatives are more often effective when championed from the top. AGU, in strong partnership with other organizations and institutions, created the LANDInG program based on the rationale that both increasing capacity for DEI leadership within the geosciences and fostering recognition for the value for DEI champions are needed to significantly improve DEI outcomes across geosciences. LANDInG comprises: (1) a sustainable DEI Community of Practice Network, to engage and support a broad representation of DEI champions within the geosciences; and (2) a DEI Leader Academy, to build the DEI leadership capacity of select cohorts of DEI champions in the geosciences through intensive, cohort-based professional development tailored for them. The LANDInG DEI Leader Academy will include opportunities for direct experience leading DEI initiatives in the geosciences. Also part of the LANDInG program will be increasing the visibility and recognition of DEI champions and leaders in order to elevate their value within the discipline. Our model for change draws from research and theory spanning social and organizational sciences, including the literatures on professional networks/mentoring, and implementing effective diversity and leader training. Our methods for enacting change are evidence-based and framed by national models for cohort-based professional development within higher education/STEM. A steering committee and an advisory board of leading DEI scholars, social scientists, and representatives of other geoscience societies will broaden the expertise and diversity perspectives over the project’s life.

How to cite: Fraiser, M., Williams, B., Goodwin, S., and Asher, P.: LANDInG (Leadership Academy and Network for Diversity & Inclusion in Geosciences): AGU’s New Program to Build, Develop, and Sustain DEI Leaders, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-8573, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-8573, 2021.