Throughout the life cycle of a geoscience career gender inequalities still exist, even in the face of legislative and societal change. One response in Alberta Canada is the formation of professional women’s groups. Drawing on feminist geography, the objective of this research was to explore the social relations and power structures involved within the work environment that categorized where women’s groups are created, why they are created, and the strategies used in addressing gender disparities and inequality. This mixed-methods study included an inventory of current groups that exist in Alberta, an online survey to reach professional STEM women within the geoscience community who have been members of one or more professional women’s groups, and in-depth semi-structured interviews with three key actors from an Alberta based group. The information gathered was then supplemented with research performed by two Alberta based grassroots professional women’s groups, the AWSN and GeoWomen. The intended outcomes were to create evidence-based solutions, which in turn will help contribute to concrete solutions to better support professional female geoscientists in Alberta. Keywords: Gender; Gender Inequality; Gendered Space; STEM; Geoscientists; Feminist Geography
This article explores how gender interacts with race, ethnicity and/or culture to structure the microaggressions experienced by visibly and culturally diverse women in Australian Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM) organisations. We focus on these women’s experiences to disrupt the normative erasure of race from the workplace diversity context. We conducted 30 semi-structured interviews with women in academia, industry and government who self-identify as women of colour or as culturally diverse. We use an intersectional lens to show that the challenges experienced by visibly and culturally diverse women cannot simply be subsumed under gender. Rather, race and gender intersect to create overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination and disadvantage. These issues are largely unintelligible in STEMM fields as science is positioned as gender- and race-neutral. Consequently, despite their devastating impact, racial microaggressions may be invisible to members of the dominant racial group—those most likely to be the peers and managers of visibly and culturally diverse women. White managers and peers can act as allies to women of colour in STEMM by respecting and amplifying their concerns. Learning to recognise and confront racial microaggressions can help make science workplaces more inclusive of all scientists.
Little is known about gender inequality in Canadian professors’ workloads (e.g., if women perform more service than men). To address this gap, we explore the distribution of research and service work amongst Natural Sciences and Engineering (NSE) professors from the Atlantic and Prairie provinces. We further investigate whether women are disproportionately responsible for activities intended to improve gender equity (e.g., youth recruitment targeting girls to account for women’s underrepresentation in NSE); and ascertain the professional and personal effects of heavy service demands. Statistical analyses of a cross-sectional online workplace experiences survey indicated that men spent significantly more time on research than women, while women spent significantly more time on service than men. Women reported significantly more time spent on professional development and outreach activities than men, specifically. Women’s heavier service load was associated with decreased research productivity, longer terms as assistant professors; and below average salaries, as compared to men of similar rank and experience. Moreover, women’s well-being was negatively affected by heavy service. Accordingly, women’s disproportionate responsibility for service is an obstacle to gender equity in academic NSE in Canada; and suggest that initiatives intended to improve gender equity in NSE may be detracting from women’s research time.
Under-representation of women in academic Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) requires multi-faceted solutions focused on retention along with recruitment. This study addresses programs developed to provide mentorship, work-life balance support, and leadership training, evaluating their perceived benefits and objective productivity markers, relying on quantitative and qualitative data. High levels of satisfaction were demonstrated for career-advancement initiatives, with the program providing support during periods of personal challenges rated somewhat higher. All programs resulted in productivity gains, including more publications, conference presentations, and promotions post-participation, providing support for multi-faceted career development, spanning scholarship and work-life balance, and targeting STEM women academic staff across the career trajectory. Similar efforts can be expected to prove effective in other higher education settings, in the US and elsewhere, providing career support and development opportunities for women in STEM. “Best practices” resulting from this program implementation are currently being disseminated regionally and await broader applications.
This editorial introduces the first of two International Journal of Gender, Science, and Technology special issues, focused on research that emerged from the Network Gender & STEM conference, centering on a re-imagining of “who does STEM,” and featured scholars from an array of disciplines and perspectives from around the globe. This re-imagining serves a critical purpose, to develop a vision for a less gender-typed present and future that identifies challenges, tests pathways through them, and forges a theoretically- and empirically-grounded path through the decades ahead. Can we be innovative in science and technology while furthering the education and career advancement of women of all backgrounds in these fields? This set of issues collectively furthers the response: yes, we can. Over the course of the issue, the argument is also made that systemic changes to reconfigure the powerful status quo need to be part of the work towards gender equity and socially just societies that position those of any gender as able and ready to do and in fact excel in STEM disciplines. Importantly, the scholarship produced in this issue is not limited to gender alone, but considers to varying degrees how power and inequality across identities and contexts can intersect with gender and compound its effects. From early education through adulthood, gender shapes how humans interface with science and technology. Therefore, some discussion of gender beyond the binary is undertaken, particularly in the latter manuscripts. These manuscripts individually and as a set advance the conversation around what can be done across education and society to achieve gender equity in STEM.
