International Women´s Day 2023

STICKY 8M2023 From the Equality Commission of the Spanish Association of Terrestrial Ecology @AEET We wish you a happy 8m and a happy scientific career, especially if you are a non-privileged researcher - because of gender, race or social reasons.
Published in Ecology & Evolution
International Women´s Day 2023
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STICKY 8M2023

From the Glass Ceiling to the Sticky Floor

To celebrate this 8M, we share results of a survey we launched to evaluate the problems that academic women are facing and that could be holding them back in their careers: The Sticky Floor Survey.

Survey (Spanish): https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1kAVUULm5fcV0NHZ-zOR-zQr7bMCWKUMZt84yV-d7gIw/edit#responses

Ilusttration: @CireniaSketches

Here some results on the Sticky Floor Survey

  • 258 people (students and professionals of ecological research in Spain) answered the survey. 201 identified themselves as women, 53 as men, 2 as non-binary and 2 did not answered about their gender.
  • 47% of women affirm they suffered professional harassment, compared to 27% of men.
  • 40% of these women express that this harassment had serious repercussions for their careers.
  • 89% of women and 86% of men suffer impostor syndrome. But, for women it starts during undergrad and for men during the PhD.
  • 22% of women responded that they dare not to speak or that their opinions are not requested in meetings, while only 4 % of men are in that situation.

We propose several actions to improve the situation and be implemented by PIs

  • Ensure equity in lab resources. Write protocols for the use of team resources that ensure that there is no discrimination. For example, men are not offered the best hours in the laboratory, nor more resources, nor are they answered more quickly to the revisions of their work, to their doubts, nor are they offered more economic help to attend conferences, etc.
  • Offer positions of responsibility that are valued by the scientific community to women. For example, offering responsibility positions in scientific committees and journals, offering official supervision to undergrad and grad students.
  • Listen and support ideas by women in the lab.
  • Build safe spaces in which women researchers can report situations of harassment, express themselves freely and find support and commitment during these processes.
  • Involve the entire team in communication and dissemination actions, as well as those related to diversity and equity, to prevent them from becoming extra work for the women researchers.
  • Involve the entire team and get personally involved in the tasks of socialization and non-scientific organization of the group that usually falls on women. Distribute these tasks equally.
  • Observe and adapt. Be ready to fight discrimination, watch and act when needed.

PRINT AND DISPLAY IN YOUR LAB!

 

Mar Sobral, Elena Velado, Virginia Domínguez, Sofía Galván, Sara Gamboa, Irene Mendoza, Pablo Salazar, Marta Rodríguez Rey, María Hurtado, Elisa Oteros Rozas, Verónica Cruz, Miguel González, Ana Benítez, María José Ruiz and Sara Varela.

Thanks to @CireniaSketches for the beutiful illustations!

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