Research Engagement and ImpactSteps to improve gender diversity in coastal geoscience and engineering

Proactively Supporting our ResearchWind-driven sand transport at Ji Beach in Southern Brazil. Copyright: Graziela Miot da Silva

A new paper from an international group of authors, including Flinders Mid-Career Researcher from the College of Science and Engineering, Dr Graziela Miot da Silva, has been published in Nature Publishing Group’s social sciences journal, Palgrave Communications.

The paper details what is holding women back in these professions and suggests seven steps to success. The group found that although women make up almost a third of the coastal geoscience and engineering community, they represent only about one in five of its prestige roles. The lack of women in prestige roles and senior positions contributes to 81% of survey respondents perceiving the lack of female role models in Coastal Geoscience and Engineering as a key hurdle for gender equality.

'Steps to improve gender diversity in coastal geoscience and engineering' by lead author Associate Professor Vila-Concejo, University of Sydney, and team can be accessed at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-018-0154-0.

The authors of the paper are from universities in Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Spain, Ireland, Mexico and France and, together, are the committee for the international network working for Women in Coastal Geoscience and Engineering (WICGE). The group was founded originally by the first 3 authors and the other members were then invited to join.

"We decided that as the WICGE committee we should make a real contribution to gender equity in our professions and wrote this paper as a first step to help achieving this goal," said Graziela.

"It was amazing to see how easily we worked together although we come from different cultures, languages and time zones. I think everything worked out so well because we had such a strong common goal and supported each other every time we faced a challenge."

WICGE can be followed on twitter, at Facebook, or through their website.

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