Geosciences are one of the least gender-diverse fields, with women representing ~33% and ~39% of those employed in the USA and UK, respectively. Institutionalized and incentivized culturally responsive mentorship through establishment of career investors offers an accelerated path toward transforming geoscience culture and leadership.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Wray, B. et al. A call to action for gender equity in climate leadership. Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 108, 1088–1092 (2023).
Ranganathan, M. et al. Trends in the representation of women among US geoscience faculty from 1999 to 2020: the long road toward gender parity. AGU Adv. 2, e2021AV000436 (2021).
Berhe, A. A. et al. Scientists from historically excluded groups face a hostile obstacle course. Nat. Geosci. 15, 2–4 (2022).
Marín-Spiotta, E. et al. Hostile climates are barriers to diversifying the geosciences. Adv. Geosci. 53, 117–127 (2020).
Nash, M. et al. “Antarctica just has this hero factor … “: gendered barriers to Australian Antarctic research and remote fieldwork. PLoS One 14, e0209983 (2019).
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine. The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM (eds Byars-Winston, A. & Dahlberg, M. L.) (The National Academies Press, 2019).
Martinez-Cola, M. Collectors, nightlights, and allies, oh my: white mentors in the academy. Underst. Dismantling Privilege 10, 61–82 (2020).
Misra, J., Lundquist, J. H. & Templer, A. Gender, work time, and care responsibilities among faculty. Sociol. Forum 27, 300–323 (2012).
Ryan, M. K. & Haslam, S. A. The glass cliff: exploring the dynamics surrounding the appointment of women to precarious leadership positions. Acad. Manag. Rev. 32, 549–572 (2007).
Hopkins, M. M., O’Neil, D. A., Bilimoria, D. & Broadfoot, A. Buried treasure: contradictions in the perception and reality of women’s leadership. Front. Psychol. 12, 684705 (2021).
Domingo, C. R. et al. More service or more advancement: institutional barriers to academic success for women and women of color faculty at a large public comprehensive minority-serving state university. J. Divers. High. Educ. 15, 365–379 (2022).
hooks, b. Feminist Theory: from Margin to Center Ch. 6 (South End Press, 1984).
Acknowledgements
All authors would like to thank the Earth Science Women’s Network (ESWN) for inspiring and administering the survey that led to the idea for this Comment. The author team is also grateful to E. Godfrey and K. DeMeester who contributed to the survey development, and M. Burt, R. Bhatia, and R. Cifelli who provided comments on draft versions of the Comment. The views or opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NOAA or the Department of Commerce.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
All authors contributed to all aspects of the article.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary information
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Abel, M.R., Behl, M., Kladzyk Constantino, A. et al. Mentors as career investors to empower women’s leadership in geosciences. Nat Rev Earth Environ 5, 553–555 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-024-00581-7
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-024-00581-7