President’s note

WOMEESAs wikipedia project got off to a flying start in April with several new wikipedians joining our ranks. Last year we added five new pages to wikipedia on women in Earth and Environmental Science in Australasia, and this year we aim to double that. It’s not too late to join in - come along to our May drop in session (details below).

There have been some alarming tweets coming out of EGU over the last week highlighting everyday sexism and gender inequity at the conference (more on this below). This is one of the biggest gatherings of Earth and Environmental scientists in the world so it is particularly disappointing that EGU aren’t doing more to combat clear evidence of inequity in their science prizes. Hopefully the awareness raising happening on twitter and in the EDI sessions are making it to EGU organisers, particularly since some of the neosexist behaviours seen at EGU contravene EGUs code of conduct.

All the best,

Melanie Finch

WOMEESA news

Wikipedia edit-a-thon

WOMEESA’s annual Wikipedia project is well underway, but it’s not too late to join in!

In May we will have another drop-in session, where you can join to work on your Wiki page or ask for help from the Wikipedia team. We will have a final session in June to publish the new pages and increase the representation of women in Wikipedia!

We will meet online and work together to create, edit and improve Wikipedia pages of notable women in the Earth and Environmental sciences in Australasia. Any WOMEESA member can participate; you do not need experience editing Wikipedia pages.

If you would like to participate contact Fernanda.AlvaradoNeves@monash.edu.

Local meet-ups

WOMEESA organizes bi-monthly local meetups, which are a great opportunity to network with members in your local area and build a stronger community. The next meetups will be held in May (details below). If you have moved cities recently please email us to update your address as we use this to find and email WOMEESA members directly about meetups in their local area (womeesa.network@gmail.com).

You don’t need to be in a capital city to organise a local meetup, WOMEESA members are everywhere! If you would like to organise a meetup in your local area, contact our events coordinator Fernanda.AlvaradoNeves@monash.edu to get help or to let WOMEESA know your plans so we can help you with publicity.

Sydney meetup:

When: 6.30 pm, May 19

Where: Diethnes Greek Restaurant, 336 Pitt Street Sydney, NSW 2000

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/womeesa-local-meetup-sydney-tickets-625819050627

Canberra/ACT meetup:

When: Sat 20th May, 11 am

Where: National Museum of Australia Café, Lawson Crescent, Canberra

Optional Exhibition: Feared and Revered - Feminine Power Through The Ages (Ticketed exhibition, own cost and booking required)

RSVP: via Eventbrite here

Contact: mardi.mcneil@ga.gov.au

Perth Meetup

When: Wed, 24 May 2023 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM AWST

Where: Hadiqa 40 Irwin Street Perth, WA 6000

Please register at this link so we can book a table

Townsville meetup:

Details TBA: we will email Townsville members directly

WOMEESA at the AESC

We are convening a session on diversity and inclusion in geoscience at the Australian Earth Science Conference in Perth 27-30 June. Registrations for AESC are still open. We love meeting WOMEESA members in real life so if you’ll be attending AESC be sure to find Erin Martin, Caroline Tiddy, Melanie Finch and Alanis Olesch-Byrne who will be representing the WOMEESA committee.

Other WOMEESA news

New ASEG President

The Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists recently elected Janelle Simpson as their new President. Huge congratulations Janelle for this well-deserved appointment. We are excited to see where the ASEG goes next.

Public consultation about gender equality

There are two Australian schemes about gender equality that are currently seeking submissions from members of the public .

The Department of Industry, Science and Resources is seeking submissions that detail your experiences with STEM to shape their vision to increase diversity, engagement and skills in STEM and support pathways for diverse groups into STEM. You can make a submission here.

The Office for Women has invited the public to make submissions on the National Strategy to Acheive Gender Equality. They say that the government wants to understand the Australian community’s vision for gender equality before developing the national strategy. Anyone can share their experiences by filling out the survey on this page.

The Geological Period no one talks about

That was the title of a poster at EGU authored by Robyn Pickering and Rivoningo Khosa about menstruation in the field. You can see a tweet of their poster at this link. This is part of a growing initiative in Earth and Environmental science to talk more openly about dealing with periods and toilet stops during field work. There is a QR link in the poster where you can contribute to the conversation. There is also this excellent primer written a couple of years ago by scientists in the University of Birmingham Earth Science department on toilet stops in the field that all educators who include field work in their courses should read.

Awards at the EGU: Still a boys club

EGU is being held now in Vienna, Austria and tweets coming out of the conference reveal a rather dismal snapshot of our discipline. The awards stage was again dominated by men, and a poster in the equity and diversity session shows that the proportion of women winning awards is far lower this year than in previous years. There are also reports of neosexism (sexism pertaining to gender equity initiatives) with an anonymous note left by an attendee on the poster of the ‘Did this really happen’ team (see picture below, in clear contravention of the EGU code of conduct. The ‘did this really happen’ initiative raises awareness of everyday sexism in academia by depicting events that have actually happened in comic form. You can check out their fabulous work at this link. It seems like they will be generating a lot of new comics on the back on their experiences at EGU this year.

There are a number of ways that organisations can change their processes for awards to make them more equitable. Justine Shaw and Vanessa Wong penned an article in the Conversation a few years back that highlights the steps that can be taken (you can read it at this link). WOMEESA have forwarded this article to the EGU.

ESWN event on navigating workplace hierarchy

The Earth Science Women’s Network are hosting a webinar on navigating workplace hierarchies on Friday May 19. You can read more about it and register at this link.

Jobs and opportunities

If you have an opportunity available and want to get word out to WOMEESA members send us an email womeesa.network@gmail.com