ED&I

Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity Audit Report

Recently, many studies have pointed out the lack of diversity in the geoscience community (e.g
Bernard and Cooperdock, 2018; Dowey et al., 2021; Stokes et al., 2019). Along with other learned societies, the Geochemistry Group (a Special Interest Group of the Mineralogical Society of the UK and Ireland, and the Geological Society of London) has acknowledged its poor record on this matter and, following up on this, has decided to take concerted actions to promote a more inclusive environment and encourage greater diversity in its membership.

Concurrently, an Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI) audit of the Geochemistry Group activities has been carried out in order to: (a) better understand the community participating in the Group’s activities; and (b) create a benchmark against which the Group will compare the diversity of its community in the future and evaluate the impact of its actions. This audit took place during the academic year 2021–2022 and considered the various areas covered by the Geochemistry Group over the past decade (2012–2021).

The report and data are freely available.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity Statement

The Geochemistry Group stands in solidarity with our Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic colleagues, and all those who suffer the abhorrent injustices of racism, prejudice and discrimination. #BlackLivesMatter #BlackAFinSTEM.

We fully support the Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity statements made by our parent bodies, the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland and The Geological Society of London, and are keen to promote balance in terms of gender, ethnicity, religion, geographical location, physical ability, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background and others. Our interest is in the science, and in your work, thus we are committed to working alongside other groups to provide a supportive environment where all in the community are welcome and valued.

We recognise that change is required, and that it can only become possible once people are aware of the biases and structural hindrances that exist within our community. We will therefore strive to help build a fairer and more inclusive academic community by challenging ourselves and others to take responsibility for our individual mindsets… A good place to start for anyone who thinks that racism isn’t an issue within the Geosciences is this recent Nature article by Kuheli Dutt.