Gender inequities in herpetology: the case of the Argentine community
Women in scientific fields have achieved meaningful gains in terms of participation, and they even reached gender parity in Argentina. However, in spite of several documented attempts to close the gender gap, inequalities still remain in different academic areas. Considering that disciplines have de...
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Formato: | Articulo |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
2021
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/168039 |
| Aporte de: |
| Sumario: | Women in scientific fields have achieved meaningful gains in terms of participation, and they even reached gender parity in Argentina. However, in spite of several documented attempts to close the gender gap, inequalities still remain in different academic areas. Considering that disciplines have developed under different historical contexts and institutional settings, it is relevant to describe gender equality indicators for them. This could also lead us to a better understanding of the mechanisms modelling global patterns of gender bias. Here we present a detailed analysis on gender proportion in different roles that researchers perform in the Argentine herpetological community. We gathered data on gender composition of the director boards and active members of the Argentine Association of Herpetology, and the organizing committees and participants of the Argentine Congress of Herpetology. We also performed a survey on gender topics to the attendants to the 20th Argentine Congress of Herpetology. Our main results pointed out a low number of women in the highest positions of the community hierarchy, such as chair positions in the AHA and conferences and symposia in congress. This leads to a lesser visibility of women in contrast to men, and is a potential reason for the low number of female herpetologists as role models. Furthermore, we detected low numbers of female herpetologists with long academic paths, depicting a major drop out of women along their careers. Gender bias in science has a strong hierarchical component and this pattern was recovered in different scientific activities within herpetology. In this sense, directed actions and targeted policies are required to guarantee the access of women to power positions and for the promotion or retention for senior female researchers. Identifying the weakest points in terms of gender equality, and the areas where gender biases are historically established is necessary to build a more egalitarian community. |
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