Women and their role in ecology

Background/Question/Methods

Society is moving rapidly and the fields of ecology have experienced what seems like monumental growth over the last 20 years.  But we are 10 years removed from Grutter v. Bollinger, 15 years away from the 25 years that Justices believed they would no longer need to have a “compelling interest” to diversify university classes.  Although the case was specifically about race but there is an analogy to be found in promoting fair representation of the two sexes in the sciences.  How is the field of ecology dealing with increased achievement of females in higher education?  How have we arrived at where we are today in diversification of the two sexes in ecology?

Results/Conclusions

Progress in our society and in the sciences can understood by examining recent educational attainment (1990-2005) and approximated by the three waves of feminism.  Educational attainment is up in most sciences, and females often surpass males in enrollment in many of related courses.  In high school, females also tend to have higher grade point averages in math and science, as compared to males.  After steady increase in American females’ attainment of PhD through the 1990’s females outpace males, with 51% of PhDs given to females in 2005.  We seemed to have turned the corner from the rapid ascension since the 1970’s but there are still questions left to be answered, such as are there undue burdens that historically underrepresented groups in ecology face?