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Geosciences remain one of the least diverse fields. Efforts to diversify the discipline need to address the role of hostile and exclusionary work and learning environments. A workplace climate survey distributed to five professional organizations illustrates varied experiences of earth and space scientists over a 12‐month period (pre‐COVID). A majority experienced positive interactions in the workplace. However, scientists of color, women and non‐binary individuals, scientists with disabilities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, pansexual, and asexual (LGBQPA+) scientists more frequently experienced negative interactions, including interpersonal mistreatment, discriminatory language, and sexual harassment. Geoscientists of color were more likely to experience devaluation of their work than white scientists. More than half of women and non‐binary respondents, as well as those who identify as LGBQPA+ experienced identity‐based discriminatory remarks. Disabled geoscientists were more likely to hear negative identity‐based language than those who did not disclose a disability. Overall, 14% of all respondents experienced sexual harassment in the previous year. Rates were greatest for historically excluded groups: non‐binary (51%), LGBQPA+ (33%), disabled (26%), women (20%), and geoscientists of color (17%). A majority of geoscientists reported avoiding their colleagues and almost a third considered leaving their institution or a career change. Historically excluded groups were more likely to report opting out of professional activities with potential career consequences. To address continued exclusion and low retention in the earth and space sciences, recruitment is not enough. We need to create environments that ensure opportunities for all to thrive.

 

Rampant gender-based harassment and discrimination are recognized problems that negatively impact efforts to diversify science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. We explored the particularities of this phenomenon in the geosciences, via focus groups conducted at STEM professional society meetings, with the goal of informing interventions specific to the discipline. Using grounded theory analysis, two primary drivers for the persistence and perpetuation of gender-based harassment in the geosciences were identified: a particular history of power dynamics and maintenance of dominant stereotypes, and a pattern of ineffective responses to incidents of harassment and discrimination. Informed by intersectional feminist scholarship by women of color that illustrates how efforts to address the underrepresentation of women in STEM without attending to the overlapping impacts of racism, colonialism, ableism, and classism will not succeed, we view harassment and discrimination as structural problems that require collective solutions. Continuing to recruit individuals into a discipline without changing its fundamental nature can tokenize and isolate them or encourage assimilation and acceptance of deep-seated traditions no matter how damaging. It is the responsibility of those in power, and especially those who hold more privileged status due to their social identities, to contribute to the dismantling of current structures that reinforce inequity. By providing explanatory illustrative examples drawn from first-person accounts we aim to humanize the numbers reported in workplace climate surveys, address gaps in knowledge specific to the geosciences, and identify interventions aligned with an intersectional framework that aim to disrupt discriminatory practices endemic to the geosciences and larger STEM community. 

Soil science is one of the least diverse subdisciplines within the agricultural, earth, and natural sciences. Representation within soil science does not currently reflect demographic trends in the U.S. We synthesize available data on the representation of historically marginalized groups in soil science in the U.S. and identify historical mechanisms contributing to these trends. We review education and employment information within academic and the federal government, land-grant university participation, and available Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) membership data to gain insight into the current state of representation within soil sciences and implications for the future of this discipline. Across all domains of diversity, historically marginalized groups are underrepresented in soil science. We provide recommendations toward recognizing diversity within the field, improving and encouraging diversity within the SSSA, and suggested responses for both individuals and institutions toward improving diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

Abstract. Honours and awards bestowed by professional societiesrecognize and reward members who have advanced the goals and values of thatsociety. All too often, however, awards reflect a small network of peoplewho know about the awards and participate in the process. This network workswonderfully for the people lucky enough to be in it, but typically neglectsthe full range and breadth of scholarship and service within the society. Werepresent a combined 15+ years' experience on the honours' committeefor a large professional society (the American Geophysical Union) and hereoffer strategies to increase the representation of honourees. Womenrepresented less than 20 % of awardees when we first becamecommittee members in 2008; women represented 50 % of awardees in2019. There is still much to do to ensure that members from other typicallyunder-represented groups (non-US members, members from under-representedraces/ethnicities) are truly represented and honoured for outstandingscience and service. We recommend forming canvassing committees that willscour the literature, conferences, and membership lists for appropriate andotherwise overlooked nominees; providing implicit bias training to selectioncommittees; and ensuring selection committees focus on the criteria for theaward rather than non-pertinent, often personal, information, as well as additionalstrategies that allow us to recognize our worthy colleagues.