Imagine in Your Mind a "Scientist"

This is a question I ask my students during the first week of every class I teach. There are consistent responses: "white lab coat", "pocket protector", "test tubes", "eyeglasses". Then I ask "What gender?". They invariably answer "male". And then I ask "What ethnicity?" There is usually a pause, and the answer is invariably "white".

The core image in the minds of nearly all my students, no matter their background, is that scientists are old white guys in lab coats. I just can't imagine where they get such ideas...


There are lots of reasons that people don't imagine themselves as scientists, but the sad fact is that geology in particular has a really poor track record in the education and hiring of people who aren't white or male. I strongly encourage you to have a look at this post from Black Geoscientists:  http://blackgeoscientists.com/2014/05/18/geosciences-in-the-united-states-the-stats/.

"...this “is what geoscience feels like to most black people.” Not most black geoscientists, but most black people. Whether they’re a chef, teacher, writer, nurse, lawyer, or actor there is a widely held (unspoken) belief that geology isn’t for black people. And unfortunately, the statistics turn that belief into a fact."

There is a lot that needs to be done. There are too many big problems in our society to leave just to an army of old white men on the verge of retirement.

What Does a Geologist/Earth Scientist Look Like? Let Us Know!

Look! A geologist! And he's an old white guy with a rock hammer! No stereotypes here (Photo by Mrs. Geotripper).

A post today over at Jacks of Science bemoaned the stereotypes of scientists as indicated by stock photography. Some of the pictures of "scientists" at work were a bit hilarious, but it was also a bit sobering to think that stock photography sites are the places that authors and publishers go to for pictures on just about any subject. I'm sure there are pictures of scientists that don't involve white coats and test tubes filled with colored liquids. Right?

I got curious, though. What would the stock photography sites have under the topic of "geologist"? I started scouring the stock image sites, and was pretty much unimpressed. If we are to go by these images, almost all geologists are men, and they work with oil derricks in the background. And like gold miners with their pans and jackasses, all geologists carry rock hammers. Okay, well that's true if they are in the field, but at least they use them right. There are three people, a senior man, a senior woman, and a kid who all strangely appear on just about all the sites, and all of them are holding the hammer the wrong way.

Stereotypes are sometimes true, but they are also often wrong, and limiting. What is anyone to think if the only picture we get of geologists is that they are all men and only work in the oilfields? It has taken years to convince minority and women students that there are great opportunities in the earth sciences, and some data suggest that enrollments are leveling off in some areas. At the same time a large percentage of practicing geologists are approaching retirement age and schools are not enrolling enough students to fill the expected shortfall in the coming decade. We who are employed as geologists and earth scientists should be doing whatever we can to reverse these trends.

Over at my "stock" photography site Geotripper Images (I do indeed have pictures of stocks on the site), I've opened a new category called "Geologists at Work". There is very little in it thus far, but I am asking my readers and fellow geobloggers (is 'fellow' a gender stereotype?) to consider sending over a picture of themselves or their coworkers doing geology in whatever setting. My goal is to have pictures that show the wide variety of careers in geology and the earth sciences, and if they can show up in an image search, maybe folks (especially young students working on career-type projects) can get a better impression of what geologists do.

The pictures on my photography site are free for use in educational projects and non-profit publications, but I ask for payment if the photographs are to be used in profit-making publications and textbooks. If you donate a photo, you will retain all copyright privileges, and if I am ever contacted by a publisher who wants to use your photo, I will refer them to you.

If you would like to submit a photograph, make sure whoever is in the photo is okay with it being posted, and send it to me at hayesg (at) mjc.edu. I will try to post it as soon as possible. Thanks for your assistance!

Speaking of stereotypes, check out the story of my own attempt at drawing a "geologist at work":

For a description of all the aspects of being a geology student, check out: http://geotripper.blogspot.com/2009/03/fully-equipped-geology-student.html

Get Rich Being a Geologist! But...?

I could have had an MBA and a corner office!

Geology as a profession gets mentioned on National Public Radio! You can get $80,000 a year to start, with a four-year degree! Mining companies and Petroleum companies are fighting over newly-minted graduates, with some people receiving multiple offers! Hear it all here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88772878.

But...I wonder if this is a very useful thing to have happen in our profession? I maybe have a unique point of view, in that I got into geology as a profession out of a love of all things earth-related, and it makes me wonder whether that is the case for all the other geologists out there? Maybe the geoblogosphere is the wrong place to ask, because running a blog on geological topics suggests a love of things geological as well. But there are a lot of students out here. Are your friends and colleagues in geology for love or money?

Does anyone break into this field, facing four years and more of calculus, chemistry and physics, as well as years of hydrology, structural geology, mineralogy, geochemistry, micropaleontology, just to pick up $80,000 to start? I see a lot of people who go into real estate, banking, accounting and the like and they make good money, but they don't generally like what they do, and build their lives around the weekends and times away from the job. That's not generally the case with the geologists and teachers that I know. They live for weekend field trips so they can get out and see even more geology!

So, are we ready for a flood of students whose motivation is primarily financial? Or will they even make it past the first hurdle of chemistry 101? Geology tends to be a boom and bust economical field; will a flood of graduates saturate the field just in time for the next economic bust? What do you think?