GENDER AND RACE IN PHYSICAL GEOLOGY TEXTBOOKS: REINFORCING THE CAUCASIAN MALE STEREOTYPE OF GEOLOGISTS

Attracting more students to geosciences is imperative. Many students first experience with geology is in a freshman college course. The American Geological Institute estimates that 315,000 physical geology text books are sold in the United States per year. Is their a bias in how geologists are portrayed in these books and, if so, what are those biases?

I selected 15 texts from nine different publishers. Data was collected on the number of photos, the number of photos with scientists and the number of scientists in each photo. Gender data was divided into male, female, and unknown. For each gender I noted if the individual was Caucasian, African-American, Asian, Latino, or unknown. I noted if the geologist was active or passive.

Only 258 (3%) of the 8,573 figures showed geologists. Of the 296 geologists in the figures, 204 are male (68.9%), 60 are female (20.3%), and 32 are of undeterminable gender (10.8%). Out of 204 males, 156 are Caucasian (76.4%), 10 are racially diverse (4.9%), and 38 are unknown (18.6%). Out of 60 females, 51 are Caucasian (85%), 4 are racially diverse (6.7%), and 5 are unknown (8.3%).

Physical geology books portray males as 3.5 times more likely to be geologists compared to females. This ratio significantly exceeds the current proportion of men and women entering the workforce (58% male and 42% female for B.S. degrees in Earth science) or the near equal proportions in the U.S. population. The books imply that Caucasian geologists are 15 times more abundant in the work force compared to their non-white peers. This ratio differs significantly from the data for recent graduates and the general U.S. population (about 3:1 for both data sets). I will offer possible solutions to book authors and publishers.