The inauguration of the exhibition will take place on October 5, 2023, at the Aula Magna of the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Girona, from 9:30 AM to 1:00 PM. During the event, we will have the participation of the scientific and artistic team that has developed the project, who will be present to share more about this initiative. The event will feature welcoming remarks from Núria Bonada, the President of the Iberian Association of Limnology, and Anna Maria Pla, the Gender Equality Delegate of the University of Girona. During the break, a light refreshment will be offered to all attendees, and there will be an artistic performance related to the project.

The exhibition will remain available at the University of Girona until October 26th. Subsequently, it will be presented at the University of Vic, the University of Valencia, the Complutense University of Madrid, the Rey Juan Carlos University, and the University of Murcia until the end of the year.

This project has been funded by the Women Institute of the Ministry of Equality, through the call for public grants for feminist and gender studies postgraduate programs and university-related activities related to equality.

1. Increasing the involvement and visibility of women in conferences— Involving women at different levels of conference organization (scientific committees, conveners, keynote speakers) is one easy, effective and practical action for achieving gender balance. Several studies have shown that women are invited more frequently to be keynote speakers when other women are in the organization board, and that women ask more questions when the person that is in the stage (speakers, conveners) is another woman (Lupon et al. 2021 and references therein). Hence, clear guidelines and criteria, including gender quotas, inclusive calls for participation, or open explanations for the reasons of choosing a particular keynote speaker, should be designed and provided to conference organizers.
   
   
2. Speaking out about gender imbalances— Most people are not aware about gender disparities in science, and particularly in academic conferences (Lupon et al. 2021). To solve this alarming problem, we recommend to include activities promoting the public discussion of gender related issues during conferences (e.g., plenary talks, round tables) or add an initial statement to raise awareness on inclusive practices. These activities provide the opportunity to unmask prevalent subtle disparities (Catalán et al. 2022), and thus, could improve diversity justice in future conferences.
   
   
3. Redesigning conferences to foster equity and inclusion— Conferences are still hostile environments for women. Before the conference, choose carefully the event’s location, materials, and policies to ensure positive, pro-active attitudes towards diversity and inclusion (Tulloch 2020). In addition, it is important to collectively rethink and redesign sessions’ dynamics to include all ideologies and capabilities. For instance, current “stage-time” dynamics favor competition and authority, which usually undermines the participation of women (Hinsley et al. 2017, Lupon et al. 2021).  The inclusion of alternative, more relaxed settings of discussion (e.g. round tables, group discussion, speed-dating activities) might help promoting the participation of women or other underrepresented groups. Involving ecological societies as allies—Ecological societies should play a pivotal role for inclusivity, as they represent academic culture and ethics benchmarks of their fields. In recent years, several societies have stepped forward towards this direction by implementing initiatives to directly or indirectly promote inclusiveness, such as code of conducts, support for child care, or breast-feeding rooms. In addition, the organization of training courses on gender bias or gender inclusive language, creating mentor-mentees programs or fostering collaboration among early-career or women researchers can contribute to avoid gender imbalances.
   
   

Even though the GEMS project works with communities from all the regions in The Gambia, it was impossible to get an equal number of women and men on the project. This is because girls’ education is not equally encouraged as boys’ in rural communities. Tertiary institutions are located in urban Gambia and students from rural communities have to travel for studies. Mostly, men are permitted to travel for further education and women stay back to assist in domestic chores. This has hindered the representation of women in citizen science projects such as GEMS. But the team will continue getting more women involved because we believe that “... if you educate a women you educate a nation” and in extension, an entire generation.

Short bio of the author: Betty Jahateh is the Program Director of the GREAT Institute, one of the pioneers of the Gambia Ocean Heroes and Project Coordinator of the Gambia Environmental Monitoring Systems (GEMS) Project. She recently graduated from the University of The Gambia with a BSc in Biology.