AN ETHICS OF CARE APPROACH TO TRANSFORMING WORKPLACE CLIMATE IN THE GEOSCIENCES

The geosciences are among the least diverse fields in STEMM. Efforts to diversify the discipline often focus on recruitment, yet hostile workplace climates create environments where not all geoscientists can thrive. Here we describe opportunities for cultural change in the discipline through the work of the NSF-funded ADVANCEGeo Partnership to transform workplace climate in the geosciences. Frequently reported negative experiences in a comprehensive workplace climate survey of >2000 earth scientists included devaluation of work efforts, insulting remarks, bullying and intimidation, identity-based discriminatory remarks, and gender harassment (Marin-Spiotta et al. 2022). Research from psychology has shown that these behaviors can affect sense of belonging and also have negative health impacts. Individuals from groups that have been historically excluded because of their gender, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, and ability status experienced more negative interactions in the workplace compared to their colleagues. Access to support also varied by group identity and career stage, with students, postdocs and trainees experiencing both more positive and more negative interactions that those in later career stages. Hostile and exclusionary behaviors have community-wide repercussions. Overall, between a quarter to a half of all respondents reported avoiding others at work, loss of confidence, lowered work productivity, skipping professional activities, or considering career changes.

The ADVANCEGeo Partnership program’s main interventions are a community-based model for bystander intervention education to respond to and mitigate the harm of systemic exclusionary behaviors in research environments and the promotion of ethical codes that identify harassment, bullying and discrimination as scientific misconduct. The program is informed by an ethics of care approach and a focus on intersectionality to better address persistent trends in the discipline and better respond to unique challenges of field training and fieldwork.