Myrmecol. News 30: 187-199
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.25849/myrmecol.news_030:187
- Open Access: CC BY 4.0
- Year: 2020
- Title: Myrmecology, Gender, and Geography: changing demographics of a research community over thirty years
- Journal: Myrmecological News
- Volume: 30
- Pages: 187-199
- Type of contribution: Original Article
- Supplementary material: Yes
- Abstract: Diversity is a driving force of innovation and creativity in scientific research. Therefore, supporting and maintaining diversity is a priority within academic communities. Gender is an important but understudied aspect of diversity in most scientific fields, including entomology. Women remain underrepresented in paid academic positions, despite the fact that nearly half of earned PhDs in science are awarded to women. With the goal of documenting contemporary demographic patterns and highlighting generational change in the global myrmecological community, we examined author gender ratios and publication rates over the past three decades, both globally and by country affiliation. Approximately one third of authors publishing about ants during 2008-2017 were women, which is similar to reported rates of their representation in other scientific fields. Over the past three decades the total number of researchers studying ants has increased and the proportion of women authors in myrmecology has risen from 17.6% in 1987 to 27.7% in 2017. Despite this increase in representation, women publish fewer papers than men, both cumulatively and annually. This gender-specific publication gap has not diminished over the past decade. Only five women rank 39 among the 50 authors with the greatest number of publications during the past decade. Representation of women varied among the 105 countries with which myrmecology publications were associated, and women were underrepresented in nearly all. In the 10 countries with the greatest numbers of authors and highest numbers of publications none had a gender-ratio biased towards women. Overall, these findings describe a myrmecological community that has grown significantly over thirty years, with an increasing proportion of women. Although this trend suggests a rising generation of myrmecologists that is more gender diverse than ever before, continued lack of parity in representation of women and their productivity are areas of concern. Further examination of these issues will inform our understanding the composition of the myrmecologist community. This data-based approach is a first step toward dismantling barriers and ensuring equity for members of all genders in our next generation of researchers.
- Key words: Ants, Formicidae, disparity, diversity, inclusion, equity.
- Publisher: The Austrian Society of Entomofaunistics
- ISSN: 1997-3500
Myrmecol. News 30: 187-199, Supplement
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.25849/myrmecol.news_030:187
- Open Access: CC BY 4.0
- Year: 2020
- Title: Myrmecology, Gender, and Geography: changing demographics of a research community over thirty years
- Journal: Myrmecological News
- Volume: 30
- Pages: 187-199
- Type of contribution: Original Article
- Supplementary material: Yes
- Abstract: Diversity is a driving force of innovation and creativity in scientific research. Therefore, supporting and maintaining diversity is a priority within academic communities. Gender is an important but understudied aspect of diversity in most scientific fields, including entomology. Women remain underrepresented in paid academic positions, despite the fact that nearly half of earned PhDs in science are awarded to women. With the goal of documenting contemporary demographic patterns and highlighting generational change in the global myrmecological community, we examined author gender ratios and publication rates over the past three decades, both globally and by country affiliation. Approximately one third of authors publishing about ants during 2008-2017 were women, which is similar to reported rates of their representation in other scientific fields. Over the past three decades the total number of researchers studying ants has increased and the proportion of women authors in myrmecology has risen from 17.6% in 1987 to 27.7% in 2017. Despite this increase in representation, women publish fewer papers than men, both cumulatively and annually. This gender-specific publication gap has not diminished over the past decade. Only five women rank 39 among the 50 authors with the greatest number of publications during the past decade. Representation of women varied among the 105 countries with which myrmecology publications were associated, and women were underrepresented in nearly all. In the 10 countries with the greatest numbers of authors and highest numbers of publications none had a gender-ratio biased towards women. Overall, these findings describe a myrmecological community that has grown significantly over thirty years, with an increasing proportion of women. Although this trend suggests a rising generation of myrmecologists that is more gender diverse than ever before, continued lack of parity in representation of women and their productivity are areas of concern. Further examination of these issues will inform our understanding the composition of the myrmecologist community. This data-based approach is a first step toward dismantling barriers and ensuring equity for members of all genders in our next generation of researchers.
- Key words: Ants, Formicidae, disparity, diversity, inclusion, equity.
- Publisher: The Austrian Society of Entomofaunistics
- ISSN: 1997-3500
Myrmecol. News 30: 187-199, AppendixS1
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.25849/myrmecol.news_030:187
- Open Access: CC BY 4.0
- Year: 2020
- Title: Myrmecology, Gender, and Geography: changing demographics of a research community over thirty years
- Journal: Myrmecological News
- Volume: 30
- Pages: 187-199
- Type of contribution: Original Article
- Supplementary material: Yes
- Abstract: Diversity is a driving force of innovation and creativity in scientific research. Therefore, supporting and maintaining diversity is a priority within academic communities. Gender is an important but understudied aspect of diversity in most scientific fields, including entomology. Women remain underrepresented in paid academic positions, despite the fact that nearly half of earned PhDs in science are awarded to women. With the goal of documenting contemporary demographic patterns and highlighting generational change in the global myrmecological community, we examined author gender ratios and publication rates over the past three decades, both globally and by country affiliation. Approximately one third of authors publishing about ants during 2008-2017 were women, which is similar to reported rates of their representation in other scientific fields. Over the past three decades the total number of researchers studying ants has increased and the proportion of women authors in myrmecology has risen from 17.6% in 1987 to 27.7% in 2017. Despite this increase in representation, women publish fewer papers than men, both cumulatively and annually. This gender-specific publication gap has not diminished over the past decade. Only five women rank 39 among the 50 authors with the greatest number of publications during the past decade. Representation of women varied among the 105 countries with which myrmecology publications were associated, and women were underrepresented in nearly all. In the 10 countries with the greatest numbers of authors and highest numbers of publications none had a gender-ratio biased towards women. Overall, these findings describe a myrmecological community that has grown significantly over thirty years, with an increasing proportion of women. Although this trend suggests a rising generation of myrmecologists that is more gender diverse than ever before, continued lack of parity in representation of women and their productivity are areas of concern. Further examination of these issues will inform our understanding the composition of the myrmecologist community. This data-based approach is a first step toward dismantling barriers and ensuring equity for members of all genders in our next generation of researchers.
- Key words: Ants, Formicidae, disparity, diversity, inclusion, equity.
- Publisher: The Austrian Society of Entomofaunistics
- ISSN: 1997-3500