We’ve come a long way in terms of gender equality since 1911, when International Women’s Day was celebrated for the first time. But not far enough.
Recognized by the United Nations in 1975, the day has been given an annual theme by the UN since 1996, which this year is “gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”, with a specific focus on the impact of climate change.
“Women are increasingly being recognized as more vulnerable to climate change impacts than men, as they constitute the majority of the world’s poor and are more dependent on the natural resources which climate change threatens the most. At the same time, women and girls are effective and powerful leaders and change-makers for climate adaptation and mitigation. They are involved in sustainability initiatives around the world, and their participation and leadership results in more effective climate action.”
As a predominantly female lab whose work bears heavily on the impacts of climate change in cities, and which continuously works to integrate feminist principles and an ethics of care in our everyday practice, IWD is especially relevant. And though it’s clear that we have a privileged role as researchers with respect to many other women in different parts of the world that are subject to severe gender inequality, discrimination and abuse, we still suffer and witness inequalities in our context every single day.
To highlight awareness of IWD through our own experiences as women, we asked some of our lab members to tell us about The Good and The Bad of being a female scientist in 2022. Because for every milestone women have achieved over the decades, there are so many others we still have to fight for.
Isabelle Anguelovski
The Good: “Working with the Barcelona City council to amplify the role and impact of female scientists in the city through grants and events funded by Plá Ciencia.”
The Bad: “Having colleagues praise our efforts at gender parity while disregarding the gender imbalances in their own spheres.”
Panagiota Kotsila
The Good: “Working with mostly women researchers has helped me navigate imposter syndrome, and also meant that feminism is not just a buzzword, but a real part of everyday practice.”
The Bad: “The slowly waning yet persisting masculine culture of competition and ego in science, which perpetuates hierarchical structures that protect abusers and exploit the vulnerability of young researchers depending on senior members.”
Marta Conde
The Good: “The head of my research center in Australia cried the other day saying goodbye to a colleague who was leaving the center, she thanked her for all her work and said how much she would miss her. I felt moved and happy to be in a center where people are so valued and where showing emotions is normalized.”
The Bad: “Coming back from maternity leave it seems that there is lots of work to catch up with… as if an 8 month baby does not need us anymore! Are these self-imposed objectives to keep up with what we think is expected from us or are there real consequences if we do less? Should I even dare to do less?”
Melissa García Lamarca
The Good: “Working in a lab with colleagues embodying explicit feminist principles of care and support really helps keep me going in an otherwise challenging research environment.”
The Bad: “Masculine cultures of competition, focused on quantity over quantity, cripple the transformative and engaged research that is needed to truly transform society.”
Margarita Triguero-Mas
The Good: “For me, doing research in environments with a high presence of women means recognizing that each of us has our own life, struggles and personal needs apart from our work.”
The Bad: “The constant and tiring fight between what women need to do to survive in academia vs. what academia has to do to welcome and allow women to thrive.”
Ana Terra Amorim Maia
The Good: “As a woman in science, I feel like I’m trailblazing the path so that younger generations of women researchers have their voices heard and respected in and beyond academia and face less discrimination in the workplace.”
The Bad: “It is still frustrating to see how many women go through a PhD program and how many end up in senior or management positions (not that many). A fairer distribution of opportunities and of caring responsibilities is imperative to revert this archaic trend.”
Amalia Calderón-Argelich
The Good: “Working with a lab that tries to put feminist ethics of care at the forefront of their practice has shown me that a different academia is possible.”
The Bad: “These practices are still relatively scarce and I feel that a lack of references can discourage other womxn from transforming academia and creating different leadership roles.”
Francesc Baró
The Good: “Moving from a feminist group and work environment [BCNUEJ] to a male-dominated department (especially in relation to senior positions) made me realize even more the positive aspects of feminist, caring, more human, leadership and teamwork.”
The Bad: “I think a lot of training/learning/awareness and systemic changes are still needed so that feminist principles can really percolate to all levels of academia.”
Ilenia Iengo
The Good: “Working within a feminist research group means there is active engagement towards uneven power relations, life/work/activism balance, affirmative ways of working together. As a chronically ill PhD student, working with feminist scholars has helped me put into perspective the internalized ableism and sense of guilt for resting, slowing down, taking care of myself.”
The Bad: “Women bear the burden of care work…even within academia. There’s a lot of behind the scenes work from administrative, practical, reporting work which is fundamental but undervalued. The neoliberal academic environment is focused on mobility, productivism, competition and individualism, which all go against feminist understandings of collaboration, thinking and everyday transformative practices.”
Andréanne Breton-Carbonneau
The Good: “Studying in an explicitly feminist lab with centered practices of care makes me feel secure, confident, and supported. In this environment I feel like a person before a publication, which gives me the space to be creative and find joy in my work.”
The Bad: “Realizing that there are few labs and academic spaces where feminist leadership is practiced and that women are often not receiving the care and support to grow and succeed.”
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Want to know more about our lab principles and lab members? Go to our About page.
Top image: Original image by Raquel Gordo via PRBB
