President’s note

This month at WOMEESA HQ we have our annual wikipedia-edit-a-thon. We have a huge list of noteworthy women in Australian and New Zealand Earth and Environmental science who do not yet have a wikipedia page. We are aiming to change that, but we need the help of our members to make this happen. Help us improve the representation of women in Earth and Environmental science by joining us on October 5. More details below.

What an absolute delight it is to see WOMEESA members and outstanding women of Earth and Environmental science on my TV! As a first year geoscience educator I am constantly on the look out for extra viewing that I can recommend to my students as a fun way to engage further with what we’re studying. Most geoscience documentaries come from the US or UK, and they are almost always presented by male scientists. Recently I’ve noticed that ABCiview in Australia has been broadcasting more inclusive, Australia-based documentaries. The most recent series called Home: the Story of Earth is beautifully shot and features lots of amazing women from our shores. What wonderful storytellers they are! Anyone listening to Indrani explain why the “boring billion” years of Earth’s ancient history should actually be termed the “brilliant billion” will immediately be convinced of her compelling and enthusiastic argument.

Finally, on a more depressing note, a report came out this morning detailing the shocking experiences of Australian women working in Antarctica. These women have faced harassment, abuse, unsafe working environments, and have been unable to get away from their abusers because there is no place to escape in Antarctica. Professor Meredith Nash from the ANU has been working for years on improving conditions for women in Antarctic science, and she is the author of the new report. I hope this will be the first step for the Australian Antarctic Division in changing the culture and making Antarctic science a safe place for women. But I am also deeply frustrated and angry that we keep seeing these reports come out in Australian industries and that action is exceedingly slow. Women are getting hurt at work - in Antarctica, in mining FIFO work, and during field work. What is it going to take for organisations to care enough to take firm, decisive action to make these jobs safe? And if they won’t do it then where is the parliamentary inquiry into women’s safety in remote working conditions? Until we see this action, I cannot continue to recommend these industries to my female Earth and Environmental science students, and that is a very sad reality.

Melanie Finch

WOMEESA President

WOMEESA News

Wikipedia edit-a-thon - Increasing the visibility of our incredible Earth Science women!

WOMEESA’s annual Wikipedia edit-a-thon is in just 5 days! 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.

We will meet online on the 5th of October at 1:00 pm AEST and work together for 3 hours. If you would like to participate, please register at this link to get the details of the zoom meeting. We will send you a list of the pages we will be working on.

WOMEESA 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. Attendance is open to everyone, including 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 September WOMEESA seminar was presented by Jenni Hopkins from Victoria University of Wellington - Te Herenga Waka. You can watch it here.

Don’t miss the next WOMEESA Seminar:

Wednesday 12 October 2022, 2pm AEST (Sydney time)

Dr Christina Riesselman

“How warm is too warm for Antarctica? 3-million-year-old lessons from a 400 ppm world.”

See our website for more information and register for the zoom link here

Talk summary: When the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015, it represented a multi-national commitment to cap global warming below +2°C in 2100, while pursuing carbon policies aimed at limiting the temperature increase to 1.5°C. So what difference does half a degree make? The marine sediment record of the late Pliocene, most recent geologic interval of sustained Paris-target global temperatures, reveals that Antarctic ice sheets and ocean circulation responded sensitively to small changes in climate during this time. This evidence suggests that, by overshooting the Paris Agreement’s more ambitious target of +1.5°C, humanity risks nudging the Antarctic / Southern Ocean system across a tipping point.

Bio: Christina is a senior lecturer in the departments of Geology and Marine Science at the University of Otago. A veteran of eight Antarctic and Southern Ocean expeditions, she is co-PI of the New Zealand Antarctic Science Platform Project 2 - Antarctic Ocean Mechanics: Past, Present and Future, and currently serves on the science committee of the Australia and New Zealand International Ocean Discovery Programme Consortium.

Local meet ups

WOMEESA organises bi-monthly local meetups in our major centres, which are a great opportunity to meet other members in your local area and to build a stronger community. This month we met in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney and the Canberra meet up is this weekend.

WHAT: Canberra/ACT in-person meetup

WHERE: The Jetty Kiosk

WHEN: 10am, Sat 1st Oct

WHY: Build our social & professional support network

No RSVP, just turn up and look for the WOMEESA logo

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.

WOMEESA #SUAW session

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.

Our September SUAW is today Friday 30 September, 12 pm (Sydney time) and you can register for the zoom link here. Our October SUAW will be on Friday 28 October (Sydney time) - watch your email for a reminder closer to the date.

Other WOMEESA news

New report on harassment of women in Australian Antarctic Science

There was shocking news this morning on a report that revealed a culture of sexual harassment, taunting, homophobia and lack of facilities for managing periods at the Australian Antarctic division. I say shocking, because the details of the report are awful, but no one who works in Antarctica will find this report surprising because this is what women Antarctic science have been saying for many years. Professor Meredith Nash wrote the report and told the ABC "I think on some level, it is unethical for us to continue trying to encourage women to enter a male-dominated field if we are not confident that organisations can keep them safe".

You can read Prof. Nash’s report here: https://www.dcceew.gov.au/about/news/on-the-record/secretarys-statement-in-response-research-study

Moving from despair to hope on climate change

Dr Joëlle Gergis is a climate scientist at the Australian National University and a lead author on the IPCC reports. High profile climate scientists like Joëlle often report the anxiety and despair they feel as they see the future they have been predicting for decades unfold in front of them, despite their tireless efforts to educate and push for action. So it was surprising to read Joëlle’s latest book and hear why she believes that there is now cause for hope. She points to the latest federal election results in Australia as evidence that we are reaching the critical mass of people required to reach a tipping point, where the social will for strong action is so great that governments are forced to act. Joëlle’s book is titled Humanity’s Moment and it’s out now in all good bookshops.

WOMEESA members on TV

There are some excellent new docos on ABCiview in Australia at the moment and we’ve been delighted to recognise a few familiar faces. WOMEESA members Indrani Mukherjee, Jacqueline Halpin and Ashleigh Hood star in the series Home: the Story of Earth. This TV series explores the science of water, air and land on Earth, and is narrated by the incomparable Rae Johnston. It is so refreshing to finally see women scientists in science documentaries, which for so long have been restricted to the likes of David Attenborough and Carl Sagan. Indrani and Jacqui have also both presented WOMEESA seminars, which you can watch here.

Hope for a parental leave revolution in Australia and some lessons from New Zealand

Gender equity advocates in Australasia highlight the effect of unequal access to parental leave on household dynamics and women’s return to work. Currently women who give birth can access 18 weeks leave at minimum wage from the government, whereas their partners can only access two weeks. The parental leave policy is similar in many organisations, with birth mothers entitled to half a year of leave in many universities for example and vastly less leave provided for the other parent, even if they are the primary carer. This means that in most families the birth mother does the majority of the caregiving and household work, and research indicates this division of labor persists well beyond the early years of a child’s life. Some organisations have already made the shift to equal parental leave for both parents, including BHP, the Australian National University and James Cook University. The government in New Zealand brought in equal access to paid parental leave years ago, but fewer than 4% of partners choose to take it up. That is probably because the statutory wage provided through the policy is actually less than minimum wage! Families will choose the option that leaves them financially better off and since women typically get paid less than men, Mums tend to get the full time parenting gig.

You can read about the current push in government in this article from the Women’s Agenda.

STEM equity monitor

Some interesting news this month with the Australian government’s STEM equity monitor finding that despite huge investment in programs targeting girls and women in STEM, very little has changed. Women in STEM ambassador Lisa Harvey-Smith points out that the problem is not really getting girls into STEM, it’s keeping them once they’re in it. Those familiar with the gender split of university classrooms will have first-hand experience of this, since typically Earth and Environmental science classes have an approximately equal gender split in Australia and New Zealand. This changes dramatically once women move into the workforce. We know that part of the reason women leave some male-dominated industries (such as mining) is because they experience much higher rates of sexual harassment and assault. The government is conducting a review of their existing Women in STEM programs with a view to directing efforts to where they will be most helpful.

Mapping minerals to understand volcanoes

Brilliant new research came out of the University of Queensland this week by WOMEESA members Alice MacDonald and Teresa Ubide and their team. They figured out how element maps in single crystals can reveal the secret history of volcano plumbing systems. Their paper in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta describes how they did some clever experiments to figure out what patterns of zoning occur at different magma temperatures. Future studies can now use these results to understand the magma systems of active volcanoes. Congratulations to Alice and the team!

Jobs and opportunities

Mineral Resources Tasmania has two jobs advertised: (1) Laboratory Manager (link here) and (2) Senior Laboratory Technician (link here)
A postdoc at Monash University in geochemistry or other fields of geology related to crustal evolution (12 Oct)
Lecturer in Physcial Geography at University of Sydney
Climate applications scientist at NIWA Wellington, NZ
Research Fellow in the Ice Sheet Initiative group at Monash University
Oceanographer at Cawthron Institute, New Zealand
Women & Leadership Australia is offering professional development scholarships for Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists staff and members. The scholarships are open to women across all areas of the Mining and Resources Sector: https://www.wla.edu.au/miningresources.html

Newsletter contributors

Fernanda Alvarado Neves

Fernanda is WOMEESA’s events coordinator and a PhD student at Monash University. Email Fernanda at womeesa.network@gmail.com if you want to organise a meet up in your local area or if you have ideas for WOMEESA events.