AN online resource connecting women working in the field of crop science has garnered particular attention and traction from female scientists in Australia.
The primary aim of the Women in Crop Science Directory was to build an index for the wider community so when people are organising workshops or conferences and want to include more diversity, they have easy access to a list of women with the necessary qualifications.
What came about as a secondary and now more important goal was creating a community network of like-minded women to whom training, development and networking opportunities could be offered.
The directory was founded by three well-respected crop scientists - International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center Global Wheat Program director Alison Bentley, National Institute of Agricultural Botany crop molecular physiology program leader Stéphanie Swarbreck and University of Leeds plant scientist Laura Dixon.
Having launched in June, the online resource has more than 200 entries and enquiries have already started to roll in trying to find women who are working in certain areas of crop science for speaking engagements.
Dr Bentley said all three of the founders were inspired by their own career journeys.
"In the agricultural sciences at the undergraduate, or even postgraduate level, there is a relatively even distribution of men and women, but when it comes to the leadership you see in many agricultural organisations, it is very visibly male dominated at the higher levels," Dr Bentley said.
"There is obviously a break in the chain somewhere and even in my own experience of coming up through that system, there was resistance and challenges and a lack of people like me.
"You're often the only woman in a room full of men and that's something we want to change and help to reform by supporting women on their leadership journey."
The directory has been created and run on a voluntary basis with the main push for momentum being created through social media.
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While more work is underway to create a website to make the directory easier and safer to access, women have already signed up and it has started to create more visibility of females in the sector.
"There seems to be a real enthusiasm for people to join and for people to be able to access and use the resource, as well as a great appetite for doing more in terms of networking and connecting," Dr Bentley said.
"We had a very strong uptake from Australia in the early days and the community there especially seems really to be looking to change the status quo.
"There has also been strong interest in North Europe and we've made a push for more involvement from Asia and Africa."
Dr Bentley and her co-contributors now want to focus on starting to connect the women in the directory.
With that in mind, they are co-ordinating a global women in crop science coffee event and are asking those in the directory to host a coffee morning either within their organisation or within their region during the week of September 5-9.
"That's had a great response so far and we're really excited," Dr Bentley said.
"It will give women such a great opportunity to connect with more people in their field and hopefully grow the directory at the same time."
A coffee meet-up is being organised by female crop scientists in WA.
More information: Email womenincropscience@gmail.com
