Gender stereotypes in ecological research themes: An analysis of the last 20 years of the Argentinian Ecology Conferences

SPIRITO, FLORENCIA; MELI, PAULA; REYES, M. FERNANDA; NUÑEZ-VIVANCO, GABRIEL ; BELLOF, ZOE; DE PAEPPE, J. L.

AUSTRAL ECOLOGY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2023

1442-9985

Argentina harbours a notable increase in academic community, achieving the highest number of researchers per capita in Latin America. Although more than 50% of these researchers are women, the gender gap is still evident, for example, in the paucity of women in senior positions or in the low number of women giving conferences in congresses and science meeting. We investigate whether gender is also associated with segregation of research themes. The objective was to evaluate the evolution of dominant research themes in Argentinian ecology over the last twenty years according to gender to address whether social gender stereotypes and biases were reproduced in research theme selection. We analysed four books of abstracts from the Argentinian Ecology Conferences of the last twenty years. Language Processing approach was used to analyse gender associations with the 16 319 words appearing in the 2 208 titles of abstracts. Research themes evolved from those considered as cornerstones of this discipline (e.g, Population-oriented studies), to contemporary themes defined by Management and policy studies. Gender differences were present and changed with time. Currently, men work on research themes related to decision-making, while women focus on environmental processes. It is urgent to build a less hierarchical science, generating leadership spaces for women, to recognize and allow for the diversity of research perspectives.