GENDER IN THE GEOSCIENCES: DEPARTMENTAL GENDER-EQUITY CULTURE AND THE RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION OF FEMALE UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

The proportion of women earning undergraduate geoscience degrees has remained about 40% for 13 years. Little research has investigated why women major in geoscience or how women’s choices differ from men’s choices to select and persist in a geoscience degree. In a three-year National Science Foundation study, we are filling this research gap by studying why female and male students major in the geosciences and why some geoscience programs are more successful than others at recruiting and retaining female students. In this presentation, we investigate the role that departmental gender-equity culture has on the recruitment and retention of women.

We collected interview data from geoscience faculty and students in six public university geoscience departments. Four sites had a low proportion of female degree recipients (< 38%), and two departments had a high proportion of female degree recipients (> 48%).

Faculty and students described experiences in the department in which they were treated differently based on gender. We coded each experience into the following equity categories: negative, null, positive. Then we analyzed all coded responses by site and assigned holistic equity categories that described the departmental gender-equity culture for each site. Negative experiences and cultures occur when individuals display, create, or act in ways that discriminate and produce a hostile environment for women. Null experiences and cultures are absent of negative or positive gender messages; being devoid of equity messages is inherently discriminatory for persons in underrepresented groups, as the “normal” environment is often designed by and for the dominant culture. Positive experiences and cultures support equity and send messages from an equity-centric perspective; they tend to exhibit a purposeful commitment to equity.

Two low sites had a negative departmental culture related to gender equity. The other two low sites had a null departmental culture related to gender equity. The two high sites had a positive culture related to gender equity.

The association between departmental gender-equity culture and the percentage of degrees conferred on female undergraduate students offers insights into departmental improvements that could increase recruitment and retention of female geoscience majors.