ED007-0004
Non-Binary Systems: Looking Toward the Future of Gender Equity in Planetary Science and Related Fields

Tuesday, 8 December 2020
Poster
Beck E Strauss, National Institute of Standards and Technology Gaithersburg, Gaithersburg, MD, United States, Kaitlin C. Rasmussen, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States, Erin R. Maier, University of Arizona, Tucson, United States, Schuyler R. Borges, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, United States, Meredith Durbin, University of Washington Seattle Campus, Seattle, United States, Aislynn Wallach, Boston University, Boston, United States, Thea H. Faridani, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States, JA Grier, Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ, United States, Theo O'Neill, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, United States, Charlotte Olsen, Rutgers University, Piscataway, United States, Luc Riesbeck, George Washington University, Space Policy Institute, Washington, United States, Edgard G Rivera-Valentín, Lunar and Planetary Institute, USRA, Houston, TX, United States, Evan Sneed, Pennsylvania State University Main Campus, University Park, United States, Dany Waller, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States, Allison Erena, Smith College, Northampton, United States and Vic Zamloot, The City of Hope, Duarte, CA, United States
Abstract:
Gender equity is one of the biggest issues facing the fields of planetary science, geoscience, and astronomy, and there is broad interest in addressing gender disparities within STEM disciplines. Many studies of these topics have been performed by professional physical scientists who are relatively unfamiliar with research in fields such as gender studies and sociology. As a result, they adopt a normative view of gender as a binary choice of 'male' or 'female', leaving STEM researchers whose genders do not fit within that model out of such research entirely. Reductive frameworks of gender and an overemphasis on quantification as an indicator of gendered phenomena are harmful to people of marginalized genders, especially those who live at the intersections of multiple axes of marginalization such as race, disability, and socioeconomic status. In order for the broader geoscience community to best serve its marginalized members, a new paradigm must be developed. We aim to address the future of gender equity and the inclusion of nonbinary and transgender people in geology, geophysics, planetary science, and astronomy by recommending better survey practices and institutional policies based on a more complex approach to gender.
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