DISMANTLING THE LEAKY PIPELINE METAPHOR: GEOSCIENTISTS EXPERIENCE DISPROPORTIONATE LEVELS OF EXCLUSIONARY BEHAVIORS

The leaky pipeline is a metaphor that describes the limited retention of women and individuals from historically excluded groups. This metaphor is problematic; it implies that the lack of retention of individuals from historically excluded groups is a passive process and that the frameworks that our institutional structures were built upon are not responsible. A more appropriate metaphor is a hostile obstacle course. The scientific community has documented a wide variety of exclusionary behaviors that individuals from historically excluded groups face, including bias, harassment, bullying, microaggressions, and discrimination. The geoscience community’s inaction to address these exclusionary behaviors remains a significant barrier to creating a diverse and inclusive geoscience workforce. This presentation will present an overview of our proposed hostile obstacle course metaphor along with climate survey data that was collected by the ADVANCEGeo Partnership.

The ADVANCEGeo partnership project implements a multi-level approach to address workplace climate in the geosciences. As one level of this work, ADVANCEGeo conducted a climate survey in Fall 2019 and Winter 2020 to document and characterize workplace experiences in geoscience organizations and institutions. The results of this survey reveal that more than 25% of respondents experienced insulting remarks, devaluation of their work, and bullying and intimidating behavior at least once in the prior year. However, these behaviors are experienced disproportionately. Members of minoritized and underserved racial and ethnic groups were more likely to experience devaluation of their work and efforts (43%) than white respondents (34%). Almost half (46%) of respondents who identified as disabled or with a disability experienced devaluation of their work and efforts and 43% experienced bullying or intimidating behavior. Career stages also has a disproportionate impact on experiences. Students, trainees, and postdoctoral researchers were more likely (40%) to have their work and efforts be devalued or sabotaged compared to other career stages (35%). These trends were consistent with respect to other forms of exclusionary behaviors including harassment and the consequences of negative experiences.