Assessing gage: an online tool for improving gender visibility in STEMM
Elizabeth A. McCullagh,
Francesca Bernardi,
Monica Malta,
Katarzyna Nowak,
Alison R. Marklein,
Katie Van Horne,
Tiffany Lee Clark,
Susan J. Cheng,
Maryam Zaringhalam,
Lauren L. Edwards
Affiliations
Elizabeth A. McCullagh
Department of Integrative Biology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA Member, 500 Women Scientists
Francesca Bernardi
Member, 500 Women Scientists Department of Mathematical Sciences, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609, USA
Monica Malta
Member, 500 Women Scientists Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON M6J 1H4, Canada Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A1, Canada
Katarzyna Nowak
Faculty of Agricultural, Life, and Environmental Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H1, Canada Yukon University, 500 University Drive, Whitehorse, YT Y1A 5K4, Canada The Safina Center, 80 North Country Road, Setauket, NY 11733 USA
Alison R. Marklein
Member, 500 Women Scientists Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California – Riverside, Riverside, CA 92507, USA
Katie Van Horne
Concolor Research, Louisville, CO 80027, USA
Tiffany Lee Clark
Concolor Research, Louisville, CO 80027, USA
Susan J. Cheng
Member, 500 Women Scientists Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Women continue to be underrepresented and less visible in the fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM). 500 Women Scientists created and launched in January 2018 a global (>140 countries to date), online, open-access directory of women in STEMM fields. This directory—recently renamed gage—now also includes gender diverse persons (i.e., additional underrepresented genders) in STEMM fields. The purpose of the directory is to make these scientists’ expertise easier to locate and access for conference organizers, journalists, policy makers, educators, and others. Here, we undertake an assessment of the directory using surveys, Google Analytics, and focus groups to understand its efficacy and direction to date and identify future improvements we pledge to undertake. Through this assessment—conducted externally and in accordance with privacy protocols by Concolor Research—we identified who and how people are using our directory, why people signed up to be a resource, and areas for improvement. Through such assessment, we can learn how to enhance the directory’s efficacy and our broader efforts to boost the visibility of underrepresented people in STEMM.
