The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation is committed to supporting Women in Tropical Biology and Conservation. In a paper recently published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution, William F. Laurance (ATBC Past-President), Susan G. Laurance (ATBC Councillor) and D. Carolina Useche found no support for the ‘Homer Simpson Effect‘ among tropical researchers. Tropicalbio.org asked to Dr Krista McGuire and Dr Meg Lowman, members of the ATBC Gender Committee to comment on it. Krista wrote that” while much work remains to achieve gender parity in tropical biology, at least we can eliminate the Homer Simpson Effect as an explanatory barrier.” Krista also suggests that “perhaps, women have developed the ‘Lisa Simpson Effect’, emulating the confident, intelligent, science-minded character of Lisa Simpson”. Commentating about the lack of Women in Science, Meg additionally remarks that “the number of women in African countries who finish school at all is a great loss of intellectual capital”. Read more about Krista McGuire and Meg Lowman’s Commentaries below.
Is There A “Homer Simpson Effect” Among Scientists? at Smithsonian.com
Gender differences in science: no support for the ‘Homer Simpson Effect’ among tropical researchers by Laurance et al. TREE 26 (6), June 2011, pp. 262-263.
Overcoming gender barriers in science at Science and Development Network
Commentaries on ‘Gender differences in science: no support for the ‘Homer Simpson Effect’ among tropical researchers’
by Krista McGuire, 4th July 2011
When the terms ‘glass ceilings’ or ‘leaky pipelines’ are used, the first association that comes to mind is likely related to the issues of women science. But Homer Simpson? For most people, this pot-bellied, crass, yellow cartoon character does not inspire discussions of gender parity. However, in a recent article published in TREE by Bill Laurance, Susan Laurance, and Carolina Useche, Homer Simpson was enlisted as the centerpiece of a gender and science study. As field biologists, dedicated conservationists, and academics, we know many of you do not own televisions, so let us first explain that Homer Simpson is a character from a long-running, animated television series called, “The Simpsons”. As stated in the Laurance et al. article, the character of Homer Simpson “thinks very highly of his own intellectual prowess” and has a severely inflated ego. While scientists are not generally known for having inflated egos (ahem), the hypothesis of the Laurance et al. study was that that men would exhibit more of a ‘Homer Simpson Effect’ than women. That is, men were predicted to rate their scientific expertise more highly than women of comparable experience, as has been found in other studies. Following a survey of pan-tropical scientists engaged in long-term field research, the authors surprisingly found no difference among men and women in their perceived expertise and, therefore, no Homer Simpson Effect. While much work remains to achieve gender parity in tropical biology, at least we can eliminate the Homer Simpson Effect as an explanatory barrier. However, one unresolved question remains: are male tropical biologists simply more humble than their fellow scientific counterparts or do women in tropical biology have more traces of Homer Simpson than women in other disciplines of science? Or perhaps, women have developed the ‘Lisa Simpson Effect’, emulating the confident, intelligent, science-minded character of Lisa Simpson who eloquently stated, “I learned that beneath my goody two shoes lie some very dark socks”.
By Meg Lowman, 20th May 2011
Alas, the underlying ratio of men:women is still fairly skewed, more than we would wish. Take, for example, the National Academy of Sciences that has relatively few women. And at a real extreme, the number of women in African countries who finish school at all is a great loss of intellectual capital. Still some work to do, in leveling the playing field. I recently spoke at Rochester Institute of Technology (70% men), and after my talk about my own experiences as a woman in science, an Indian girl came up — crying and hugging me. She said she was going to give my book to her parents, and just maybe it would convince them to cancel her arranged marriage so she could become an engineer as she dreamed to do — so bright, yet so many obstacles.