 Roser Cussò, ilustradora del proyecto AUMENTA El proyecto AUMENTA llega con un nuevo reto para el grupo: La creación de un libro ilustrado con experiencia de realidad aumentada que trabajará la relación existente entre el clima, el agua y las mujeres con alumnos del último ciclo de educación primaria (10-12 años).
Gracias a la financiación de la Fundación Española para la Ciencia y Tecnología (FECYT), se dará continuidad al proceso de colaboración entre Arte y Ciencia iniciado con la exposición “Ecofeminismos aumentados: clima, agua y mujer”. En esta ocasión, hemos creado ocho cuentos ilustrados que narran como la emergencia climática está afectando la cantidad y calidad de las aguas dulces a través de la visión de distintos personajes femeninos. Los cuentos terminan con una ilustración de realidad aumentada que a invita a la reflexión sobre la relación que existe entre el clima, el agua y las mujeres; así como sobre el poder que tienen las nuevas generaciones de mejorar el sistema actual. Para fortalecer el impacto de esta colaboración, el libro se enviará gratuitamente a 25 escuelas de España. Además, se proponen distintas actividades didácticas que permiten profundizar en el contenido temático que el libro ilustrado presenta, así como una visita de una de las científicas implicadas en el proyecto durante la primavera 2024. Las escuelas participantes recibirán el libro y la guía didáctica en el mes de abril 2024 y las visitas se programarán para los meses de mayo y junio. Nos encantaría que vuestra escuela formara parte de este proyecto con la participación de alumnos de quinto y sexto de primaria, y nos gustaría conocer vuestra opinión frente a las posibilidades de participación. Agradeceríamos una respuesta antes del 16 de marzo para poderos confirmar vuestra participación, reservar un libro y organizar la visita. Nos podéis contactar aquí: [email protected]
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Entre los dias 10 y 27 de noviembre de 2023, la exposición “Ecofeminismos aumentados: clima, agua y mujer” ha permanecido en la Facultad de Biología de la Universidad de Murcia. En su inauguración, intervinieron la Vicerrectora de Calidad y Coordinación, Alfonsa García Ayala y la Decana de la Facultad de Biología, Eulalia Clemente Espinosa, que destacaron el papel fundamental de las mujeres para minimizar los efectos del cambio climático. Les acompañó también la Vicedecana de Ciencias Ambientales, Maria Luisa Suárez Alonso, que como coautora del proyecto MUAC, hizo un breve repaso a los contenidos de la exposición y a la forma de visualizarla. Tras esta intervención, se desarrolló una mesa redonda en torno a “Agua, Mujer y Justicia Climática” que contó con la participación de Francisca Baraza Martínez, Presidenta de la Mancomunidad de los Canales del Taibilla, que nos habló sobre el papel transformador de las mujeres en puestos de responsabilidad para la gestión de recursos como el agua e hizo un breve análisis de las oportunidades que para las mujeres se abren de cara a los próximos años en las administraciones públicas, motivado por la tasa de reposición a que va a obligar el alto número de jubilaciones. En segundo lugar, Teresa Vicente Giménez, Directora de la Cátedra de Derechos Humanos y Derechos de la Naturaleza de la Universidad de Murcia y protagonista de uno de los vídeos de la exposición, reflexionó sobre la fuerza colectiva de las mujeres para revertir los modelos actuales de desarrollo que ponen en peligro recursos y ecosistemas tan singulares como el Mar Menor. Por último, María Giménez Casalduero, Profesora Asociada de Derecho Administrativo en la
Universidad de Murcia, reflexionó sobre la justicia social y, en particular, sobre la gestión del agua que afecta particularmente a las mujeres. Nos ilustró con el ejemplo cercano de la lucha de las mujeres en Murcia durante la crisis económica que afectaba al suministro de agua en sus hogares al no poder afrontar ese gasto económico. Entre los asistentes, se expuso la lucha colectiva de un grupo de mujeres ante un caso de sobreexplotación de un acuífero para el regadío que dejaba seco un tramo de río. La moderadora de la mesa Chary Vidal-Abarca, destacó la actitud colaborativa de las mujeres cuando se enfrentan a problemas ambientales. Un ejemplo, destacó, fue la propia exposición a la que se llega tras la búsqueda de un lenguaje común entre ciencia y arte. Como reflexión final de este acto, señalar que el cambio climático y los problemas que genera la escasez de agua ligados a la perspectiva de género en terceros países tienen también una réplica importante en nuestro entorno más cercano. En el siguiente enlace, se puede visualizar un vídeo con este acto. Aparte de los alumnos de la facultad que se detenían para interesarse por la exposición, nos visitó un grupo de estudiantes de la Facultad de Derecho que mostraron un enorme interés por el contenido y los componentes artísticos de la misma. Finalmente, señalar que muchos docentes se interesaron por los materiales, considerando que serían de mucha utilidad en su actividad con el alumnado. Climate change is altering rivers, lakes, and wetlands all over the planet, generating inequalities and discrimination that disproportionately affect women. Many women, driven by discontent, have become prominent voices in movements for the defense and protection of these ecosystems. Unfortunately, we often forget these women when we talk about climate change and water. The exhibition Augmented Ecofeminisms: Climate, Water, Women (#MUAC) reflects on the interactions between climate change, freshwater ecosystems, and ecofeminism. Through a journey that combines augmented reality with scientific, artistic, and audiovisual material, the authors question the current management of environmental issues related to water and explore a possible future based on alternative perspectives, voices, and ideas to contemporary politics. You can watch the teaser of the exhibition here  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.
 Timeline of the “Herstory” in limnology, where selected achievements of female limnologists are highlighted. Last October, a new publication of the group was published in the journal WIREs WATER. In this article, we aimed to bring into the spotlight the past and current situation of female limnologists.
Firstly, the historical contribution of women to limnology (HerStory in Limnology) was revised. We compiled biographical information including the name, bibliography, and relevant contributions of 73 female limnologists, from different countries, periods and disciplines (https://zenodo.org/record/7104480#.Y5rx4XbMK3A). Secondly, we analyzed the present situation of female limnologists. We highlighted how the current metrics used to evaluate scientific performance could be detrimental for women’s career, and how women are underrepresented in awards and positions of maximum responsibility in the scientific sphere, hindering their visibility. Here you have some shocking/worrying numbers to illustrate our findings:
The article finishes with a summary of initiatives working for gender equity in the field of limnology, including our work as a Gender and Science Group of the Iberian Association of Limnology (www.genderlimno.org), the Earth Science Women's Network (https://eswnonline.org/) or the Justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) task force by the Society for Freshwater Science (https://freshwater-science.org/justice-equity-diversity-inclusion-jedi-task-force). This article raises awareness of barriers that women faced and still face, and encourages to embrace models of leadership and scientific management different from the ones currently established. Only this way, we will be able to achieve gender balance not only in our professional careers, but also in the other dimensions of our lives. Read the full article here: https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1616 Núria Catalán, Maria Anton-Pardo, Anna Freixa, Pablo Rodríguez-Lozano, Mireia Bartrons, Susana Bernal, Ana Genua-Olmedo, Clara Mendoza-Lera, Gabriela Onandía, Xavier Benito, María Mar Sánchez-Montoya, Miguel Cañedo-Argüelles Iglesias, Ada Pastor, Anna Lupon. 2022. Women in limnology: From a historical perspective to a present-day evaluation. WIREs WATER, e1616. This post was written by Maria Anton-Pardo, a lecturer on zooplankton, meta-communities and temporary aquatic ecosystems at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain. Academic conferences are major scenarios to disseminate and learn about scientific advances, but also to bring opportunities for developing collaboration networks or displaying a certain status and prestige. However, not all researchers benefit equally from these events. Recent studies showed compelling evidence that women have reduced opportunities to participate in academic conferences compared to men. Discrimination against women has been reported in abstract selection, coauthor lists, convener panels and invitations to keynote talks (Farr et al. 2017, Sanchez-Montoya et al. 2016, Lupon et al. 2019). Yet gender bias does not stop there: women generally ask fewer and shorter questions than their male counterparts (Hinsley et al. 2017), and tend to feel more excluded from intellectual discussions and social events (Lupon et al. 2019, Settles and O’Conner 2014). Collectively, these “chilly” experiences may affect women’s job satisfaction and lower their intentions to pursue a scientific career (Biggs et al. 2018).
These findings stress the importance of advancing towards more women-inclusive conferences, even in countries with good perceptions of women as scientists. Due to these facts, we strongly encourage organizers to develop and follow guidelines for inclusive scientific meetings, with special focus on:
References: Biggs J, Hawley PH, Biernat M. 2018. The academic conference as a chilly climate for women: effects of gender representation on experiences of sexism, coping responses, and career intentions. Sex Roles, 78: 394–408. Catalán, N., Anton‐Pardo, M., Freixa, A., Rodríguez‐Lozano, P., Bartrons, M., Bernal, S., Genua‐Olmedo, A., Mendoza‐Lera, C., Onandía, G., Benito, X. and Sánchez‐Montoya, M.M., 2022. Women in limnology: From a historical perspective to a present‐day evaluation. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, p.e1616. Farr CM, Bombaci SP, Gallo T, Mangan AM, Riedl HL, Stinson LT, et al. 2017. Addressing the gender gap in distinguished speakers at professional ecology conferences. Bioscience, 67: 464–468. Hinsley A, Sutherland WJ, Johnston A. 2017. Men ask more questions than women at a scientific conference. PLoS One, 12: 1–14 *Lupon A, Rodríguez-Lozano P, Bartrons M, Anadon-Rosell A, Batalla M, Bernal S, et al. 2021 Towards women-inclusive ecology: Representation, behavior, and perception of women at an international conference. PLoS One, 16: e0260163. Sánchez-Montoya M. M, Pastor A, Aristi I, del Arco AI, Antón-Pardo M, Bartrons M, et al. 2016. Women in limnology in the Iberian Peninsula: biases, barriers and recommendations. Limentica, 35: 61–72. Settles IH, O’Connor RC. 2014. Incivility at academic conferences: Gender differences and the mediating role of climate Sex Roles, 71: 71–82. Tulloch AIT. 2020. Improving sex and gender identity equity and inclusion at conservation and ecology conferences. Nat Ecol Evol., 4: 1311–1320 In July 2022, the Gender Science AIL group participated in the “Ecology: Bettering our sustainable future through scientific knowledge” conference, an event joining the II Meeting of the Iberian Ecological Society (SIBECOL), the XXI conference of the Iberian Association of Limnology (AIL), and the XXI National Congress of Ecology of the Portuguese Ecological Society – SPECO) in Aveiro (Portugal). For the first time in the history of the group, we were invited to present a plenary talk, entitled “Gender & Science: Fostering women in Limnology”. In this talk, seven members of the group presented the different projects, ideas and achievements that we have developed throughout the years. After the presentation, the audience shared their experience, opinions, and solutions to reduce gender barriers in academia. The talk, which the conference audience granted with the award “Most inspiring talk” will soon be available online. One month later, in August 2022, the Gender Science AIL group also participated in the 36th Congress of the International Society of Limnology (SIL), held in Berlin. In that conference, three members of the group organized a special session about “Herstory in Limnology” and presented the results of our two latest publications (Lupon et al. 2021, Catalán et al. 2022). As occurred in Aveiro, the audience was highly receptive and several people approached us to share their gratitude, testimonies and enthusiastic solutions. Overall, these great experiences taught us that the inclusion of activities promoting the public discussion of gender related issues during conferences is an easy and efficient action for raising awareness about all the barriers that most female researchers have to face during their careers.  The author of this post is Anna Lupon, a river biogeochemist at CEAB-CSIC, Blanes, Spain.
The metaphor of the leaky pipeline describes how the number of women, Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and other minoritized groups in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine) fields progressively decreases at every stage of their academic careers (see Figure below). This phenomenon leads to a loss of talented and skilled people in STEMM, and to a severe under-representation of these groups at the independent investigator and leadership levels.  The leaky pipeline share of women in higher education and research, 2013 (%). Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics estimates based on data from its database, July 2015. However, the passivity of this approach has often been criticized. Women and BIPOC don’t leak out of the pipeline. Instead, they are forced out of it under pressure behind blockages. In The Leaky Pipeline Playbook, Miranda (2021) explains many actions and behaviors that reinforce and perpetuate the exclusion of women and people of color in STEMM fields. Some of these behaviors are, for example, weaponizing the unwritten curriculum (i.e., Many critical skills for success in an academic career depend on the adviser's willingness to teach them to the advisee), steering down into less prestigious, visible and impactful career opportunities, or qualifying academic achievements (i.e., Assuming that women and BIPOC achievements are due to their adviser’s effort or just due to luck). Only by identifying those pipeline blockages will they be removed. We strongly recommend reading this article (available here). In this regard, another interesting and highly recommendable article has been recently published: Scientists from historically excluded groups face a hostile obstacle course (Berhe et al., 2022). In this work, authors propose to move forward from the passive metaphor of leaky pipeline to the hostile obstacle course. This new metaphor is characterized by the existence of cultural and structural barriers that have been put in place deliberately or unconsciously, to slow down or exclude certain groups. According to the authors, the different experiences of white women, BIPOC, transgender people, religious minorities, academics with disabilities, foreign-born, or international scholars are better represented as a hostile obstacle course. Authors argued that the leaky pipeline fails to represent the experience of many people, because scientific careers are often more like a braided river with multiple routes. In addition, many of the solutions proposed, such as mentoring and recommending historically excluded groups for awards, are patches to the holes in the leaky pipeline, but they are not a real solution. These patches distract from the structural barriers in the scientific institutions, and they do not face the real and documented problems, such as bias in the way that applications are evaluated, bias in the peer-review process, racism, micro- and macroaggresions, sexual harassment, discrimination and other exclusionary behaviours. Moving from the leaky pipeline to the hostile obstacle course means that the “obstacles are not the inevitable consequence of poorly maintained infrastructure; instead, they are barriers that have often been deliberately — or at the very least unconsciously — put in place and sustained”. Because of these obstacles in their careers, scholars from historically excluded groups spend more time and energy to progress, and, in the end, they have to be better than their colleagues to be seen as doing equally. The consequences can vary from the slow down of their careers, to real traumatic experiences that pushed them out of academia. Gender and racial discrimination play a critical role in the decision of women overall, and women of colour in particular, to leave science and academia. Ultimately, this paradigm shift means that the emphasis and responsibility lies in those in power to actively remove the barriers presented in the hostile obstacle course. Only by the identification and acknowledging of these cultural and structural barriers, will they be confronted, and dismantled. And only by dismantling them, we will transform academia in a more diverse and equitable environment. The author of the post: Dr. Elizabeth León-Palmero is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU). References:
Miranda, E. A. (2021). The Leaky Pipeline Playbook, Inside Higher Ed. Available at: https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2021/08/13/actions-and-behaviors-thwart-advancement-women-and-people-color-academe-opinion (Accessed: 2 February 2022). Berhe, A. A., Barnes, R. T., Hastings, M. G., Mattheis, A., Schneider, B., Williams, B. M. and Marín-Spiotta, E. (2022). Scientists from historically excluded groups face a hostile obstacle course, Nature Geoscience, 15(1), pp. 2–4. doi: 10.1038/s41561-021-00868-0. The Gambia is the smallest mainland country in Africa with an area of about 11,360 km2. It is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the west and by Senegal on the north, south and east. Sourced from the Fouta Djallon highlands on the east and connected to the Atlantic Ocean on the West, the River Gambia runs through the entire length of The Gambia, thus geographically dissecting it into northern and southern parts. It hosts vast interlinked aquatic habitats ranging from freshwater, brackish to marine. Along the riverbanks, rich extensive mangrove ecosystems serve as habitat to various marine organisms and support food security. The estimated population of the country is about 2.5 million, 50.6% of which are women. Agriculture plays a significant role in The Gambia's economy by employing about 70% of the labour force, 32% in primary agricultural production; 54% of which are women and contributing to 25% of the country's GDP (FAO et al., 2018). Within the agricultural sector is rice production which is a staple food in The Gambia. Rice was mainly grown along the riverbanks through tidal irrigation from the river Gambia (M’koumfida et al., 2018). Due to global sea-level rise, low-lying topography of the country, groundwater extraction, reduced rainfall and back effect, saltwater has intruded both groundwater and the river Gambia (M’koumfida et al., 2018). This has deprived women of affected regions easy access to clean water for domestic chores and agricultural productivity. Women are experts on swamp farming (M’koumfida et al., 2018) and are dependent on the river for farming and household chores. Due to freshwater salinization, these errands have likely become more troublesome by negatively affecting rice production and livelihoods of the women (M’koumfida et al., 2018). Strengthening and supporting women affected by freshwater salinization in The Gambia will tremendously contribute to food and financial security, and improve health of Gambians in rural communities.  In addition, aquatic science education is not included in the school curriculum. This coupled with lack of data from continuous monitoring to assess the effects of climate and environmental change along the river Gambia led to the birth of the Gambia Environmental Monitoring Systems (GEMS) Project. This research project provides the first environmental and biodiversity data set (aquatic parameters: pH, Salinity, Dissolved Oxygen and Temperature) across the whole length of river Gambia through active participation of various communities and exchange of scientific and local knowledge.  GEMS is supervised by Maiyai Taal Hocheimy, Director and founder of Gaining Research Experience in Africa for Tomorrow (GREAT) Institute, the first aquatic sciences research and educational institute in The Gambia and I have the pleasure to be the project coordinator. The institute prioritizes women empowerment and gender equality in all programs and projects. Particularly, at the GEMS project, we focus on empowering individuals, with emphasis on women, whose livelihood depends on the ecological services from the river Gambia. One of these beneficiaries is a female-dominated oyster harvesting association called TRY Oyster Women Association. Four women from this association were trained to monitor different locations along their site of work, Tanbi Wetland Complex. Weekly, hand-held equipment is used by the women to collect water quality and weather data along different parts of the River Gambia. Monthly, field technicians from GREAT collect data using a multi-probe meter to ensure data accuracy across the sequence of data collected by all groups. The women have a user-friendly data log book with pictures and illustrations (for those that are not proficient in the English language) where the data is recorded. The work of these women is continuously supervised by the field and lab technicians of the GREAT Institute. A brief description of the project can be found in this video. 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.
References
Last March, the American National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine published the report on the Impact of COVID-19 on the Careers of Women in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The evidences they compiled show that the pandemic has negatively impacted the productivity, work-life balance, mental well-being of women in academia. One of the commisioned papers that integrate the report, shows how, although pandemia is causing burnout to all academics, this effect is stronger for women. Emotional and other effects of pandemic-related burnout were worse for female faculty members: 75% of women reported feeling stressed, compared with 59% of men. By contrast, in 2019, that number was 34% for female respondents. Is that endemic for academia? Unfortunately it does not seem so. March brought multiple global organizations' contributions, the European Parlament, the Global Gender Gap (GGG) Report 2021 by the Global Economic Forum, and the policy brief of the UN among others. The GGG Report showed that, the number of years needed to close the gender gap has increased from 99.5 years to 135.6 years. Regarding the main highlights of the UN's policy brief, it reminds us (as did last year) that women spend 3 times as many hours as men in unpaid and domestic work, which on average represents 4.1 hours/day per women vs 1.7 hours/day per men, and that women's unpaid cotributions to the GDP equate to 2.35%.  The pandemic is deepening pre-existing inequalities and exposing vulnerabilities in social-economic and academic systems...and it's doing it very fast! Keep in mind that closing the gap or, as of now, impeeding that it keeps growing, requires active commitment. If you are in academia, remember the Athena SWAN principles and today, more than ever, commit to remove the obstacles faced by women at your institution...and at home!
On the 10th and 11th December 2020 we participated in the Negotiating the uncertainty of researcher careers event organized by the Researcher Identity Development European project, which aims at helping Early Career Researchers (ECRs), to develop as researchers and to provide them with the educational resources for acquiring the high-level competences and skills they need to act as researchers in a complex, highly competitive and interdisciplinary context. The Gender Science AIL group was invited to present the different projects and ideas that we have develop throughout the years to foster the careers of women in Limnology. You can see the session on the RIS-SSIS Youtube channel: |
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March 2024
AuthorDifferent members of the Gender and Science AIL group will contribute to the Blog, as well as invited collaborators. |
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