The overall crystallography community has about 30% women members, but the IUCr include a broader range of women in leadership positions across all committees, and encourages regional associates to follow those policies
Challenges in Academic Diversity
The ACA (American Crystallographic Association) which is a regional organization of IUCr (International Union of Cristallography) began addressing gender and racial equality concerns around 2016, with efforts to increase diversity in executive committees and programs. Progress is very slow. To take an example, in the Chicago area, where is located a large black community, the population is 15-20% Black but undergraduate student representation has remained stuck at 8% at the Univ of Illinois (Chicago) for 20 years.
Gender Diversity Initiatives
Inititives are taken to improve gender representation through mentoring, outreach programs, and promoting diversity in committees, with the goal of achieving 50% representation . As a result, the representation in leadership positions at IUCr is above 30 % which is the proportion inside the scientific community. However, the representation of women in awards within the field is not yet satisfactory since only one out of six awards went to a woman in a recent year.
The main gender diversity committee (GEDC) operates at the IUCr level with representatives from each regional association, though not all of the regional organizations themselves have separate gender committees. The organization collects gender data through self-reporting during conference registration and uses this information to provide appropriate accommodations, including childcare facilities, as well as prayer rooms.
The IUCr/GEDC has a toolkit which is a ’living’ document that will continue to evolve over time, providing guidelines to improve diversity at all meetings. There haven’t been any significant issues requiring a grievance mechanism for sexual harrassement or discrimination.
IUCr activities also include creating historical records of the lifes and achievements of women scientists to make their contributions visible and inspire future generations.
Key takeaways for other institutions
- Improve gender representation through mentoring, outreach programs, and promoting diversity in committees, even if the proortion of women in your scientific community remains low
- Design a toolkit for conference organizers, providing guidelines to improve diversity at all meetings and organize appropriate accommodations, including childcare facilities
- Create historical records of the lifes and achievements of women scientists to inspire future generation