A new EDI Division of the Italian Geological Society

The study by Agnini et al. (2020) has described the scenario over the last two decades about the presence of women working in geosciences in the Italian University system. Data show a slightly positive trend in the female percentages of both full (from 9.0% to 18.5%) and associate professors (23.6% to 28.9%). Conversely, the same positive trend is not seen among research fellows/assistant professors, although the PhD population (i.e., the career starting point) shows near gender balance. The under representation of women among permanent researchers is around 35% and 32% for non-permanent researchers. In Italy, the Glass Ceiling Index is alarmingly high, 3.02, and never approached the value of 1 that indicates no difference between women and men in terms of their chances of being promoted. It is clear that more efforts are needed to promote work-life balance policies and a firm discouragement of the prevailing patriarchal mentality would eventually help in reconciling family and work to give equal opportunities to men and women.

On this topic, in 2021, the Italian Geological Society (SGI) created a new Division dedicated to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, “PanGEA, Geoscienze Senza Frontiere”. This new SGI Division aims to coordinate and promote activities to overcome differences in gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, disability, language and age and support inclusiveness in Italian geology. The Division is also conceived as an open environment, intended to create opportunities for communication, mutual support and professional development. To do so, the Division organizes – at least once a year – a national workshop to connect academic geoscientists to professionals from the public and private sectors and teachers. We believe in the need to build supporting and mentoring actions at different levels because geology is a discipline that must evolve to embrace all kinds of diversity. 

 

Agnini, C., Pamato, M. G., Salviulo, G., Barchi, K. A., and Nestola, F.: Women in geosciences within the Italian University system in the last 20 years, Adv. Geosci., 53, 155–167, https://doi.org/10.5194/adgeo-53-155-2020, 2020.