A Global Survey on the Perceptions and Impacts of Gender Inequality in the Earth and Space Sciences

摘要

The leaky pipeline phenomenon refers to the disproportionate decline of female scientists at higher academic career levels and is a major problem in the natural sciences. Identifying the underlying causes is challenging, and thus, solving the problem remains difficult. To better understand the reasons for the leaky pipeline, we assess the perceptions and impacts of gender bias and imbalance—two major drivers of the leakage—at different academic career levels with an anonymous survey in geoscience academia ( n =1,220). The survey results show that both genders view male geoscientists as substantially more gender biased than female scientists. Moreover, female geoscientists are more than twice as likely to experience negative gender bias at their workplaces and scientific organizations compared to male geoscientists. There are also pronounced gender differences regarding (i) the relevance of role models, (ii) family‐friendly working conditions, and (iii) the approval of gender quotas for academic positions. Given the male dominance in senior career levels, our results emphasize that those feeling less impacted by the negative consequences of gender bias and imbalance are the ones in position to tackle the problem. We thus call for actions to better address gender biases and to ensure a balanced gender representation at decision‐making levels to ultimately retain more women in geoscience academia. Plain Language Summary Despite a fairly equal gender representation among PhD students in the Earth and space sciences, there is a disproportionate dropout of women at higher academic career levels. Resolving the underlying causes of this problem requires a comprehensive understanding of the perceptions and impacts of gender inequality. In a survey among 1,220 geoscientists, women report negative gender bias twice as often as their male colleagues and appear particularly affected by the impacts of gender imbalance such as the lack of same‐gender role models. In contrast, male geoscientists are less aware of gender inequality and less supportive of intervention measures such as gender quota. Hence, our results suggest the need for reconciling the views of those most affected by gender inequality (i.e., primarily nontenured female geoscientists) with those in the position to reduce gender inequality through policy and decision making (i.e., primarily male tenured geoscientists).