Origins, Worlds, and Life A Decadal Strategy for Planetary Science and Astrobiology 2023-2032 (2022) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 434-463
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16 State of the Profession INTRODUCTION The decadal survey's statement of task charged the committee with addressing the state of profession (SoP) , including issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA; see Appendix A)
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IMPLICIT AND SYSTEMIC BIAS Overall progress on matters of equity and accountability in STEM fields has been slow, and in the case of advancing some underrepresented racial/ethnic communities (URC) , it has been surprisingly stagnant.
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extensions to the constraints placed by demographic variables such as socioeconomic status, age, disability, immigrant status and nationality, sexuality and gender identity, and religion are all a part of understanding the nature of systems of bias. The idea of systemic bias takes the long view, starting with American colonial history, and explicit practices and policies that reinforced disadvantage across all domains of life (Banaji, Fiske, & Massey, 2021)
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our scientific work, we use the best measures to find the evidence we are seeking, we report our results publicly and transparently, we allow others to evaluate and challenge it, we improve it and get back to the drawing board. Why are we, members of STEM fields, slow to do the same to measure ourselves on matters concerning the SoP?
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rigorous data collection and analyses are required to draw robust conclusions, which is not currently possible. TABLE 16.1 Overview of the Datasets on the Planetary Science Workforce Total number Abbreviation Name of Survey Year of Survey Fields Surveyed Response Rate sent to (N)
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Small Number and Diverse Programs There are only ~13 U.S. university departments, with "planetary" in the department's name.
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participants who had earned a doctorate and lived in the United States. Among them, 946 identified as planetary scientists actively working full-time and on research (rather than mission operations, management, or teaching)
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Employment Relatively few planetary scientists work at NASA centers: 14 percent in 2011, and only 7 percent in 2020. The largest portion of planetary scientists work at a university or college (48 percent in 2011, 41 percent in 2020)
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FIGURE 16.2 Representation of men and women, and demographics by race and ethnicity as reported in the 2011 and 2020 planetary science workforce surveys along with the demographics of physical science jobs, all STEM jobs, and all US jobs as reported by a Pew Research Center study. The STEM jobs data for American Indian /Alaskan Native are from a NASA report on demographics of its workforce.
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TABLE 16.2 Demographics of the Planetary Science Workforce by Year of Ph.D. Degree Conferral as Presented in the 2020 AIP Planetary Science Workforce Study Black, African American Asian Year of Degree Hispanic/Latinx White LGBTQ+2 or another race /ethnicity1 American 1970 or earlier 5% 0% 3% 92% 4% 1971 - 1980 3% 0% 5% 92% 4% 1981 - 1990 3% 3% 4% 90% 2% 1991 - 2000 4% 2% 11% 83% 6% 2001 - 2010 4% 5% 10% 81% 6% 2011 - 2020 5% 6% 17% 72% 12% 1 Other race/ethnicity included respondents who are Native American/Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander, or wrote in another race/ethnicity.
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Comparison across Sub-Fields of Planetary Science: Geology, Astronomy, and Physics Both the Geological Society of America 9 and the American Geophysical Union 10 gather data from their members and publish gender demographics as a function of career stage. Like planetary science, there are clear indications of trends of increasing percentage of women across these fields.
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finding of the 2020 AIP workforce survey that 37 percent of planetary scientists are women. Additionally, 5 percent of PIs identified as URC between 2014 and 2020, which contrasts with the AIP survey's suggestion that 8 percent of the field is URC.
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followed the framework established by Reid (2014)
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The white papers reveal that interest in SoP concerns is robust and high but underscore a sparse evidence base. Almost half the papers offered only an occasional statistic.
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The systems and mechanisms to define, measure, and publicly report on the profession are currently inadequate. The data presented above represent a tremendous investment of time and resources by individuals and organizations who have sought to understand the SoP.
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gap for proposals led by new PIs. New PIs represented, on average, only 6 percent of proposal awards for Cycles 19-25.
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(e.g., through improved selection rates)
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FIGURE 16.5 Percentage of women on competed planetary mission teams from 2006 to 2019. Here, Rathbun (2017)
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the role of social rather than scientific factors. For example, the American Geophysical Union (AGU)
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percent of those faculty positions were tenured positions. Similarly, women in 2013 held 49 percent of all faculty positions, an increase from 39 percent in 1993, but only 38 percent of those faculty positions in 2013 were tenured positions.
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Interest in physical sciences seems evenly distributed among the U.S. population in childhood and teenage years.
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programs, such as the Harriett G Jenkins Pre-Doctoral Fellowship Project (JPFP)
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Enabling Safety, Equity, and Inclusion in Field Work Terrestrial field work is a crucial component of planetary and astrobiology research. Current barriers to effective and safe field research include physical safety hazards inherent to field sites, accessibility for persons with disabilities, and harassment in field settings (Richardson et al.
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RECOMMENDATIONS An Evidence Gathering Imperative about the State of the Profession The committee recommends that NASA PSD create a 3-part foundation of evidence to examine and understand the community so that it can confidently proceed to advance the SoP. With this, NASA PSD can ensure that it is in command of facts and figures of the PS&AB communities.
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finding and retaining the best talent in the world, bringing the same attitude it brings to the science of planetary exploration to matters of SoP. It is important that such data collection be conducted with proper input to ensure quality through an appropriately constituted advisory body with the authority to recommend actions as required.
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NASA engages in high-quality education on implicit bias to change hearts and minds, a review of its own procedures and policies is also merited. NASA has set an example in its tackling of DAPR following the pioneering effort at the Space Telescope Science Institute for the Hubble Space Telescope program.
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scientists and engineers are involved in their planning, development, and operations. Succession plans offer an opportunity to grow the diversity of the community as part of a long term and sustained effort.
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outline expected behavior, explain unacceptable behavior, explain how policies will be enforced, provide clear instructions on how to report incidents, and explain consequences of violations. The process should demonstrate sensitivity to the difficulty of bringing forward accusations and to the rights of the accused.
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Charlesworth, T.E.S., and M.R. Banaji, 2022, Patterns of implicit and explicit attitudes IV.
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Rathbun, J., E
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