A CRITICAL FEMINIST APPROACH TO TRANSFORMING WORKPLACE CLIMATE IN THE GEOSCIENCES (Invited Presentation)

The ADVANCEGeo Partnership aims to transform workplace climate in the geosciences through interventions informed by critical feminist approaches that seek to disrupt unequal power dynamics in highly hierarchical spaces. Community engagement is central to the project’s multi-level approach to improve workplace climate by providing tools to individuals and departments, and partnering with professional societies to change culture in the discipline, and through it, institutions. Using an intersectional framework and centering identity has been key for expanding the project’s focus to hostile workplace climates, for including strategies that address safety in field research and training environments, and engaging the broader community, including leadership. ADVANCEGeo has developed a community-based model for bystander intervention and workplace climate education that identifies harassment, bullying and discrimination as scientific misconduct, equips individuals and departments with skills to recognize and interrupt exclusionary behaviors, and promotes the adoption of ethical codes of conduct. The use of discipline-specific scenarios, tailored to the audience, increase people’s engagement and recognition of the problems. Workshop participants report gaining knowledge and feeling more confident in employing bystander intervention skills, and making commitments to improve their workplace climate.