President’s note
I hope that you are all keeping safe and well and that those presently in lockdown throughout Australia are managing to balance work, childcare and homeschooling and also manage to fit in a bit of ‘me’ time along the way. It might be my British roots, but my coping mechanism seems to be copious cups of tea and biscuits.
Over a year and a half into the pandemic a number of studies have been assessing the gendered impact of COVID-19. The American Geosciences Institute COVID-19 Survey, shows that women have borne disproportionate impacts to productivity from increased household management tasks and childcare during the pandemic. Also, the Australian Academy of Sciences have recently published a report on the impact of COVID-19 on women in the STEM workforce across the Asia-Pacific region (further details below). The study revealed that the pandemic had exacerbated pre-existing gender inequity in the STEM workforce across the region.
Unfortunately, we’ve had to yet again delay our local face-to-face WOMEESA catch ups in Australia but will still be running our online activites. In the meantime, the WOMEESA Team have been working on changes required to our Constitution, which we’ll communicate shortly and planning a hybrid workshop and our AGM (face-to-face in Queensland and online) around the time of the Dorothy Hill Women in Earth Science Symposium in November - assuming we will all be able to travel by then.
The Indigenous Women in Mining and Resources Australia (IWIMRA) have recently started a newsletter. To find out more about IWIMRA and to sign up to their newsletter please visit their website. Stay safe and take care!
Heather Handley
WOMEESA News
Online Seminar Series
Each month we host a seminar via zoom from a WOMEESA member. Our seminar series aims to increase the visibility of women in science and provide inspiring role models. All are welcome, even non-members.
Details of upcoming seminars on posted the seminar webpage here, and past seminars are posted on our YouTube channel here. We’re also compiling a list of talks by women in earth and environmental sciences in the region which you can find on the seminars webpage.
The July seminar was presented by Dr Teagan Blaikie about “Aeromagnetic interpretation of the Tanami Region and northwest Aileron Province” and you can watch it here.
Don’t miss the next WOMEESA Seminar:
Wednesday 4 August, 2pm AEST (Hobart time)
Dr. Jacqueline Halpin, University of Tasmania
“Subglacial Antarctica: terra incognita to terra-more-firma?”
Register here for the zoom link
Future seminars:
— Note that from September the seminar moves to the 2nd Wednesday of the month—
Wednesday 8 September, 2pm AEST (Brisbane time)
Dr. Anita Parbhakar-Fox, The University of Queensland
Wednesday 13 October, 2pm AEST (Sydney time)
Hon. Associate Professor Heather Handley, Macquarie University
Shut Up And Write #SUAW
On the last Friday of the month we hold an online Shut Up and Write #SUAW session via zoom. We get together and talk briefly about what we want to achieve in the session, then write for about 50 minutes.
It’s a great opportunity to connect with other members and get some uninterrupted writing done. Even if you don’t have anything to write, you can just come along and say hi.
Next event will be Friday 30 July, 12 pm (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane time) the zoom link has been emailed out to members.
Member spotlights
Our member spotlights are helping increasing the visibility of women working in earth and environmental sciences in the region and share experiences. If you would like to feature on a member spotlight page or write an article for our blog page please get in touch with Jess (j.hillman@gns.cri.nz)
Take a look at the most recent spotlights here
Other WOMEESA News
Congratulations to WOMEESA Member Laura Otter who has received the ‘ANU Research School of Earth Sciences Award’ for two full days of sponsored SHRIMP time to look at oxygen isotopes in bivalve shells.
WOMEESA Team Member Sandra McLaren was an invited panellist for the Royal Society of Victoria discussion on plate tectonics and the evolution of scientific ideas.
Massive congrats to WOMEESA Team Member Kliti Grice, recently announced as one of seventeen 2021 Australian Research Council Laureate Fellows. Just fantastic!
WOMEESA Treasurer Mardi McNeil published a paper on the morphology of Halimeda bioherms in the Great Barrier Reef and her photo made it onto the front page of the journal! Go Mardi!
Member Sandra Villacorta was invited to participate in a roundtable event at the 50th Brazilian Geological Congress to discuss solutions to improve geoscience research and education in Latin America.
Congratulations to Jan Strugnell at Monash, recently promoted to Professor. Jen also co-ordinated a past Wikibomb event adding 100 biographies of women in Antarctic Science.
Great to see several WOMEESA members receiving 2021 AIPS Tall Poppy Awards this year. Congratulations to Steph McLennan (ACT), Marissa Betts and Hannah Power (NSW).
The Surprising Effect of Overestimating Sea-Level Rise
Melt water ponded at surface in the accumulation zone of Columbia Glacier, Alaska, in July 2008. W. Tad Pfeffer, University of Colorado at Boulder
Public perceptions of the consequences of climate change are tied to tangible action - if you believe something is likely to be a problem then you are more likely to feel compelled to do something about it. Right? Well, maybe not. Associate Professor Rebecca Priestley from Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington led a team of researchers who surveyed New Zealanders about how much they think sea level is going to rise, and they found that most people overestimate current and projected sea-rise. But rather than compelling them to buy electric cars and put solar panels on their roofs, overestimating risk can actually be just as bad as underestimating it because it incites feelings of helplessness and anxiety. So the researchers conclude that the key is to get our science communication right - give the public access to reliable scientific data that will help them make decisions. The results of their studies are summarised in this article from The Conversation.
Australia Post New Volcano Themed Stamp Collection
Australia Post recently released a series of stamps featuring four notable Australian volcanoes. To launch the collection Australia Post asked WOMEESA President and volcanologist Heather Handley to help write a blog piece about the stamps. Heather also created a short clip about each volcano explaining how they formed and what determined each volcanoes’ particular morphology. Another example of brilliant science communication from Heather. What a star!
Cake and Soft Sediment Deformation at Jam Roll Bay
The brilliant Dr Suzanne Bull of GNS Science posted an awesome YouTube video on twitter last week where she uses a jam roll to explain the beautiful structures of Jam Roll Bay in Northern Taranaki, New Zealand. Suzanne has also put together a virtual field trip on this fantastic location which explains in more detail what you can see here. It looks like the access to the rocks is a bit difficult for those of us who do not routinely abseil down cliffs, so this is the perfect location for a virtual adventure. You can follow Suzanne on twitter @PelagicSooze.
The Ultimate Australian Rock Collection
Mantle xenolith in basalt bomb from Mount Shadwell
Last week Dr Emily Finch from the Australian synchrotron published an article in the Conversation about the top 5 Australian rocks required for any serious rock collection. WOMEESA talked to Emily while she was forming the list and a lot of tough decisions were made to whittle down to the absolute must-haves, it is literally like choosing five favourites amongst all your hundreds of beautiful rock children. Looks like we all have rock-collecting road trips to plan once these lockdowns are over!
Ms Represented
You may have already heard about the new Australian ABC TV series called Ms Represented, because it is really resonating with a lot of women in science, despite being about women in politics. Ms Represented was created by the wonderful Annabel Crabb, who is well known for her brilliant books "The Wife Drought" and her Quarterly essay called "Men at Work: Australia's Parenthood Trap". In Ms Represented, Annabel interviews Australian women politicians about their experiences and careers. Every episode has a new revelation that shows how shockingly bad gender equity has been and remains in the halls of parliament. Even though she interviewed the women separately, some stories were so common that they were actually able to cut together the interviews in order to tell the story - the interviewees were literally able to finish each others sentences. One such example was the phenomenon that occurs where a woman in a meeting suggests something and is ignored, and then a man makes the EXACT SAME SUGGESTION and everyone in the room thinks its brilliant *eye roll*. Sound familiar?
The Gutsy Girls Adventure Film Tour
The Gutsy Girls Adventure Film Tour is a series of short films from independent filmmakers about girls and women doing awesome, adventurous stuff like snowboarding in the French Alps, walking around the entire Earth (yep, entire Earth, it took six years), and surfing, skateboarding and mountain biking in crazy places. There are lots of screenings planned around Australia and you can find out when and where on this website (I would check back once we have an end date for lockdowns or sign up to their mailing list). For those outside Australia, shoot the organisers an email to get a screening in your country.
Report on the Impact of COVID-19 on women in STEM
The Australian Academy of Science released a report on the effect of COVID-19 on women in the STEM workforce, based in part on a survey they conducted across the Asia-Pacific region. They found that almost half the women surveyed with caring responsibilities did not have access to flexible working arrangements, even though 60% said this would have helped them. Many reported blurring of work and home boundaries, increased caring and familial responsibilities and 50% of respondents reported negative mental health impacts in relation to home or work life. The report recommends more flexible workplace cultures and fairer measures of work productivity, particularly when it comes to publication records.
New Article Forecasts Timeline for Gender Equity in Geoscience Academia
A group of women graduate students at MIT teamed up to write an article on the trends in the representation of women in US geoscience faculty. A particularly interesting part of the study was predictions of when parity between men and women in geoscience faculty will be reached. If men and women are hired at equal rates the researchers calculated that for assistant and associate professors, equal representation between women and men should be achieved by 2028 and 2035, respectively. For full professors, it would be 2056, which is probably beyond the retirement age of almost everyone reading this newsletter. As the study’s lead author Meghana Ranganathan points out “Given there’s been this huge focus on equity, inclusion, and diversity in the last few years, we’d like to think that sudden energy would translate to things changing quickly. And the reality is, even if we commit to hiring 1:1, things will change very slowly.” Some universities in Australia are trying to get gender equity fixed quicker by focusing on hiring women for the next few continuing positions. Fixing this problem quickly is great because it means we all see the benefits sooner, including increased numbers of women role models for students and the general public, and the increased diversity of research initiatives and ideas that comes with greater diversity.
Opportunities
The Geoscience Society of New Zealand photo competition is closing in just a few days on July 31! Dust off those spectacular geoscience photos from the last time you managed to get into the field and enter them in. There are some great prizes.
Applications for Fresh Science are open now for ECRs (29 July)
E.S. Hills Medal, Geological Society of Australia (31 July)
Garry Davidson Award, Geological Society of Australia (31 July)
Early Career Researcher Grant, Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (31 July)
UNSW has a postdoc in radiocarbon analysis of microfossils (1 August)
The Australian Institute of Geoscientists has student bursaries available (6 August)
AGU: Contribute to our #AGURocks, #DrawnToGeoscience or #RhymeYourResearch blog series
Do you perform music, create art or write poetry about science? Do you want to show off your talent while also pulling back the curtain to show your creative process? Then contribute to one (or all) of our #SciArt blog series! Learn more about the different series and submit your post today!
AGU: Submit your Postcards from the Field
Are you performing fieldwork this summer? Show us your field site! Submit to our Postcards from the Field blog roll on Tumblr and let us know what being in the field is like for you.
PhD opportunities:
Have an opportunity you’d like to share then let us know!
Upcoming Events
Women in Geothermal (WING) UK Virtual Geothermal Careers event.
Wednesday 28 July 4.00-5.00 pm BST (super early Australian time - 1-2 am AEST)
The WOMEESA shut up and write July session
The next #SUAW is this Friday 30 July at 12 pm AEST (Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Melbourne time), check your email for the zoom login details.
WOMEESA virtual seminar series
The August seminar in our monthly series will be presented by Dr. Jacqueline Halpin from the University of Tasmania on August 4 at 2 pm (AEST, Hobart time). To find out more and register to attend head over to our website. From September the WOMEESA seminars are moving to the second Wednesday of every month at 2 pm (Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney time). If you want to catch up on past WOMEESA seminars you can check them out on our YouTube channel.
WOMEESA local face-to-face bimonthly catch-ups
WOMEESA local catch-ups are bimonthly, so the next dates will be in August in states that are free of COVID restrictions on meeting up. If you are interested in organising a F2F in your own state or neighbourhood contact Heather Handley (heather.handley@mq.edu.au) to find out how.
Dorothy Hill Women in Earth Science Symposium 2021
Save the date: 3rd Dorothy Hill Women in Earth Science Symposium, 15-17th November 2021 starting with an ice-breaker on the late afternoon/evening of the 15th and then two full days of action packed in-person meeting. Find out more here.
Newsletter Editor-in-Chief
Melanie Finch
Melanie is a WOMEESA team member and geoscience lecturer at Monash University. Please contact Melanie if you see something to include in next month’s newsletter Melanie.Finch@monash.edu.
Newsletter Contributors
Heather Handley
Heather Handley is the Co-Founder and President of WOMEESA and an Honorary Assoc. Prof. at Macquarie University.