Read the full story in Science.
Women constitute 26% of the scientists at the prestigious Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), but only hold 17% of the space, according to an unprecedented report released last week.
SIO’s 56 women scientists have on average half as much research space and one-third the storage space of their 157 male counterparts, according to the 95-page report by a task force of SIO faculty and staff and UCSD officials. The 16 labs defined as “very large” all belong to men. Women also have less office space. And of 32 coveted storage containers in service yards on site—as opposed to at less convenient remote locations—31 are assigned to men.
The authors said the differences could not be “explained away” by funding, years at SIO, discipline, or research group size. “Our analysis points to the existence of widespread, institution-wide cultural barriers to gender equity within Scripps,” they concluded.
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