Women in Climate 2021 Round up

Posted by Ruth Chapman

We have had another busy year for Women in Climate, as the network approaches 4 years of age in April 2022! Nearly all of our meetings this year have been virtual, with the exception of an in-person social event in December 2021 (pre Omicron!).

We’d like to highlight that the network often writes blogs that capture the essence of a meeting, although meetings are not recorded to encourage open dialogue in meetings (we hold our meetings under Chatham House rule). You can catch up on the blogs using the links below.

This year we:

• Held two book club meetings, ‘All We Can Save’, and ‘Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race’.
• Tried to better understand what data on diversity our organisations collect in the meeting, ‘Do we have a gender balance problem’.
• Took a look back in time for the meeting ‘Reflections on the History of Women in Science’.
• Got to know the inspiring journeys of some of our members better in ‘Women of the GSI and Met Office’, we featured blogs written by members for International Day of Women and Girls in STEM 2021 on our website, and members featured in a Met Office video.
• Thought creatively during our ‘Communicating science through comedy and storytelling’ and our ‘Women and climate craft’ workshops.
• Learnt about important brand new social science: ‘Gender differences in productivity and collaboration networks of top ranked academics’.
• Had our first transatlantic meeting and biggest event yet, hosting Kate Marvel from the USA for a discussion about ‘Climate, Clouds and Communication’, with the support of the Inspiring Seminar series at the University of Exeter.
• Were inspired to think about Data Science and Environmental Intelligence with Dr Kirstine Dale and how we can encourage more women to participate.

Freya also used her event organising skills to co-organise the Gender Day event at COP26 in the Science Pavilion, ‘What Women Bring to Climate Science’ (you can watch this event on Youtube).

Looking back further in time, there are a number of blogs which might be interesting for you to revisit. You can see the full list of events that we have held since April 2018 here. Some particular suggestions include:

• Diversity in Science Communication
• Carol Rosati OBE: an outside perspective from an ED&I professional on diversity in science
• Understanding Body Language
• Being a good ally
• Writing about climate workshop
• From post-doc to private secretary: How to seize opportunities in your early career (Dr Natalie Garrett)
• Careers in Climate Workshop
• Outreach
• Imposter Syndrome/Phenomena: slides about the issue and blog discussing tackling the issue.

In the New Year, we look forward to more book club meetings, learning about Science Communication with Dr Rosie Oakes, and learning about the gendered nature of ambition, plus many more meetings through the rest of the year. You can see more information about our future events here.