The European Geosciences Community: insights from a survey on workplace diversity and climate

Although the Geosciences remain one of the least diverse scientific communities, we need more quantitative data to capture how homogeneous or diverse the community actually is. It is also unclear how this non-diverseness translates into workplace safety. Unsafe working conditions are frequently reported in mainstream media, but it remains difficult to develop targeted and effective solutions without knowing who is affected. To obtain data on how different members of the geoscience community experience workplace environments, we released an anonymous survey which can be accessed via:[https://qfreeaccountssjc1.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6LLqSaXRyLZ3yZg]. The survey interrogates topics affecting workplace safety, such as sexual harassment, discrimination, (un)equal gender treatment. It also includes recommendations and strategies to improve overall workplace safety. Initial findings show that around 40-50% of respondents (n=78) have sometimes experienced a) disrespectful comments or actions, b) people questioning the respondents’ professional expertise, and c) sexist or racist language in their workplace. Such experiences predominantly caused about 40% of total respondents to consider leaving their institutions or changing careers. Our survey also showed that, only around 18% of respondents feel supported by their institutional administrations to report an incident, or trust the reporting system to be fair and unbiased. This preliminary outcome means that there is a major task at hand at the institutional level to transform current working environments into a safe space where geoscientists can thrive. The updated results and insights from this survey will be presented at the EGU General Assembly in 2023.