GENDER TRENDS AMONG GEOSCIENCE FACULTY AND STAFF IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A REVIEW FROM TOP GEOSCIENCE INSTITUTIONS

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission-Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 focused on people who were older than 40 years of age. Nevertheless, both young and older people of all genders complain of discrimination related to their age. However, a higher percentage of women than men report that they have been victims of age discrimination. In a survey of geoscience departments conducted in 2016, 15% of women reported having encountered age discrimination, compared to only 6% of the men who reported that they had been subject to this type of discrimination.

According to the American Geoscience Institute, the number of women doctorates in Earth, Atmospheric and Ocean sciences is increasing steadily from ~5% in the 70s to about 40% in 2010. However, in the 2016 survey, 55% of faculty in Geoscience departments and programs report that they have less than 20% of female faculty or female department heads. A review of data from some of the top geoscience institutions in the world support these observations.

In general, the number of female faculty in geoscience institutions generally decreases with increasing academic rank. In other words, the number of female faculty decreases with increasing age. The data show that less than 20% of full Professors and emeritus faculty are women. In addition, less than 35% of women are associate professors, with a slightly higher percentage (~40%) who serve as assistant or visiting professors. Among support staff, trends are similar to those observed for faculty, and show that research faculty, post-doctoral fellows and laboratory technicians have 20-25% fewer women than men. A higher ratio of women is only observed for administrative staff in the geoscience community. These numbers have implications for recruiting and retaining women into geoscience programs due to the lack of representation, and limited number of mentors “who look like me”.