Women in Field Biology

Martha L. Crump is Adjunct Professor in the Biology Departments at Utah State University and Northern Arizona University. She has extensive field experience working with amphibians in Latin America, with fieldwork concentrated mainly in Costa Rica, Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, and Chile. Crump received the Distinguished Herpetologist Award from The Herpetologists’ League (1997), and the Henry S. Fitch Award for Excellence in Herpetology from the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (2020). She is Past-President of the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. Crump is the author of over 60 scientific papers, one of six authors on Herpetology (college-level textbook), co-author of Extinction in Our Times: Global Amphibian Decline, and author of five popular scientific books, most recently A Year with Nature: An Almanac (University of Chicago Press, 2018). In Search of the Golden Frog (University of Chicago Press, 2000) is Crump’s travel/adventure/memoir story of fieldwork in Central and South America. She is also author of four children’s books, including the award-winning The Mystery of Darwin’s Frog. Michael J. Lannoo is Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Indiana University and an affiliate of the Illinois Natural History Survey at the University of Illinois, and Purdue University. He has considerable tropical and polar field experience in addition to his primary research emphasis on temperate systems. In 2001 Lannoo received the Parker/Gentry Award for Excellence and Innovation in Conservation Biology through The Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL. This award honors "an outstanding individual, team or organization whose efforts are distinctive and courageous and have had a significant impact on preserving the world’s natural heritage, and whose actions and approaches can serve as a model to others." (see http://www.parkergentry.fieldmuseum.org/2001). Lannoo is the author/editor of over 100 scientific papers and seven popular scientific books, including Leopold’s Shack and Ricketts’s Lab: The Emergence of Environmentalism, and most recently This Land is Your Land: The Story of Field Biology in America (University of Chicago Press, 2018).

Preamble

Section 1: Historical Perspective

Chapter 1: Introduction

Origins: Europe

Origins: North America

Chapter 2: Pre-1880 (Late Age of Discovery)

Europe

North America

Chapter 3: 1880 to 1916 (Gilded Age)

Chapter 4: 1917 to 1945 (War and Interwar Years)

The Chicago plant ecologists

The Chicago animal ecologists

The Nebraska/Minnesota plant ecologists

The Wisconsin limnologists

The Cornell legacy

Elsewhere in the United States

Chapter 5: 1945 to 1972 (Postwar Years)

Chapter 6: 1972 to Present (Civil Rights Era)

Section 2: Current Perspectives

8. Chapter 7: Backgrounds, Paths, and Careers

9. Chapter 8: Experiences and Perspectives

Role models and mentors

Tales from the field

Joys and challenges of motherhood and field biology

Advocacy for women: science outreach: service to

the profession

Are there advantages of being a woman in the field?

Hardships and challenges

Subtle or overt message that females are intellectually

inferior to males

Prevented from doing something because of being a

woman

Need to prove self

Safety issues/Vulnerability as a woman

Sexual harassment/Assault

Bullying/Harassment/Jealousy/Stealing

Appearance

Other challenges

Challenges associated with being a woman of color

in field biology Microaggressions (and some not so micro)

Positive change

Increasing diversity and inclusivity

"Words of wisdom" for the next generation

Section 3: Looking Toward the Future

Chapter 9: Ongoing Challenges and Moving Forward

Gender bias in science

Prove-it-again

The tightrope

The maternal wall

Tug of war

Isolation

Additional challenges faced by women field biologists

Ethnic and racial minorities in field biology

Moving forward