Abstract
Abstract. Diversity and inclusion in the workplace optimise performance through the input of a range of perspectives and approaches that drive innovation and invention. However, gender inequity is prevalent throughout society and females remain underrepresented in geoscience careers. This study provides the current status of gender equity in geosciences throughout Australasia within the context of broader gender equity policy, frameworks and initiatives and suggests additional solutions and opportunities to improve gender equity and the retention of women in the geoscience workforce. At an individual institutional level in academia, females make up between 23 %–52 % of the total geoscience departmental or school staff in Australia, 26 %–39 % of the total staff in New Zealand, 29 % of total staff at the University of Papua New Guinea and 18 % at the University of the South Pacific. Significant gender imbalance exists at more senior levels, with disproportionately more males than females, a pattern typical of many Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) disciplines. Gender inequity is prevalent within the general membership, committee roles and in award recipients of Australasian geoscience professional associations. Within the Geological Society of Australia and Geoscience Society of New Zealand, only 4 % (n=47) and 18 % (n=161), respectively of past award recipients for national and general awards were female. All past awards considered in this study that are named in honour of a person were named in honour of a man (n=9). In recent years, women-focused networks have begun to play an invaluable role to support the retention and promotion of women in geosciences and provide a supportive mentoring environment to discuss challenges and share advice. The improved visibility of women in the geoscientific community is an ongoing issue that can in part be addressed through the development of public databases of women geoscientists. These provide a list of women geoscientists that encourages and supports the achievement of gender balance of invited talks, job shortlisting and on panels, as well as in the media. This work highlights that more must be done to actively reduce and eliminate sexual harassment and assault in university and field environments. We emphasise that particular efforts are required to make geoscience careers more inclusive and safer, through the establishment of specific codes of conduct for field trips. Shared learning of best practices from evidence-based approaches and innovative solutions will also be of value in creating positive change. Greater engagement from the wider geoscientific community, and society in general, is required for the success of gender equity initiatives. Identified solutions and opportunities must target all levels of education and career development. Additional data in future should be collected to look beyond gender to monitor and assess intersectionality. Improved efforts to understand why women leave STEM careers will help to address the “leaky pipeline” and determine the initiatives that will be most effective in creating long term sustainable change.
Highlights
Workplace diversity and inclusion is central to driving innovation and invention because it widens perspectives and approaches, optimising performance (Green et al, 2002; Johnson, 2018)
Institutional and grass-roots initiatives focus on improving gender equity, it is expected that these initiatives will help increase diversity of minority groups since some strategies are not targeted at helping women explicitly, but rather reducing bias in systems around hiring, awarding grants, and promotions, for example
In this paper we present the current status of gender equity in geosciences in Australasia as expressed through a compilation of publicly available information on gender in academic institutions, and success in Australian (Australian Research Council, ARC) and New Zealand (Royal Society of NZ, Marsden Fund) funding schemes
Summary
Workplace diversity and inclusion is central to driving innovation and invention because it widens perspectives and approaches, optimising performance (Green et al, 2002; Johnson, 2018). Progress is slow and women and other underrepresented groups continue to face barriers to careers and career progression within Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths (STEM) fields, including Geosciences (the latter including Earth and Environmental Sciences) This is due to a range of factors including discrimination, bias, stereotypes, and workplace structure and culture (e.g., Su and Rounds, 2015; Dutt et al, 2016). The labour force participation rate of women, expressed as a percent of the working-age population provided by the International Labour Organisation (ILO, 2020, https: //ilostat.ilo.org/data/country-profiles/) shows that the Australasian island nations of Fiji (38.6 %, 2016 data), Vanuatu (58.1 %, 2010 data), Papua New Guinea (47.7 %, 2010 data), and Samoa (31.5 %, 2017 data) are generally lower than that for Australia (61.0 %, 2019 data) and New Zealand (65.6 %). Differences in research score and age explain less than half of the approximately NZD 400 000 lifetime gender pay gap in NZ universities (Brower and James, 2020)
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