Summer marks the start of new academic appointments in some of our departments and the newest investigators are being welcomed into the profession of assistant professor as it celebrates a nearly even female-male gender split. Statistics Canada reported 3,456 females and 3,438 males in 2021/2022 combined across all disciplines and all universities in Canada. This is a big change from 1970/1971, the first year with data, when those counts were 3,900 males and 444 females. On a related note, Statistics Canada began reporting counts of “another gender and unknown” a few years ago, and reported 54 assistant professors identifying as such in 2021/2022. [1]
Substantial change over time gives rise to questions about what happened over the past decades. A poster was developed to explore these changes.
The project began with journalist Marieta-rita Osezua investigating diversity in data science, but she found the records were too sparse for such a broad goal. Building off of some excellent resources [2,3,4], the project scope was narrowed to firsts for women in statistics in Canada <footnote 1>. Jeeheon Kim continued the research and compiled feedback from individuals, the broader professional community [6], the SSC committees on equity, diversity and inclusion, and the women in statistics. To provide context, the timeline was overlaid with major events from the professional society [5] and changes to legislative barriers related to gender equality.
Unfortunately, it would be impossible to create a timeline of firsts without unintentionally omitting important people and events. Additionally, there are no shortages of stories and important details that could have expanded the scope wider and poster taller, many of which seem astonishing by the comfort of today's standards. Some obvious omissions include tales of academic buildings constructed without women’s washrooms, the horrific École Polytechnique massacre of 1989, and the 2005 Civil Marriage Act which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
The poster was always meant to be adaptable and modifiable for future work, including to more general definitions of diversity. However, this goal collided with the reality that the investigators were only able to produce an ugly prototype poster via LaTeX. A professional poster design was completed this spring by Alina Rizwan from CANSSI Ontario using more typical designer-friendly tools.
The poster overlaying timelines of major accolades by women in statistics in Canada with a brief history of the SSC and federal legislative changes was completed thanks to support from the Carleton University Faculty of Science, the SSC, and CANSSI.
The poster is free to download, reproduce, and modify:
A French version will be available later this year.
Footnote:
1 Even though using a binary definition of gender is out of date, historical perspectives on broader gender definitions are poorly documented. This is changing, Statistics Canada data used in the poster starts including an “other” category to gender in 2017 or thereafter.
References:
[1] Statistics Canada. Table 37-10-0077-01 Number and median age of full-time teaching staff at Canadian universities, by highest earned degree, staff functions, rank, gender. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3710007701
[2] Billard, L., & Kafadar, K. (2015). Women in statistics: Scientific contributions versus rewards. In Jr., et al. (Eds.) Advancing women in science: An international perspective, W. Pearson, http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08629-3_7
[3] Stinnett, S. (1990). Women in statistics: Sesquicentennial activities. The American Statistician, 44(2), 74–80.
[4] Thomson, M. (2014). Reflections on women in statistics in Canada. In Lin et al. (Eds.), Past, present, and future of statistical science X. https://doi.org/10.1201/b16720
[5] Bellhouse, D. R., & Genest, C. (1999). A history of the statistical society of Canada: The formative years. Statistical Science (14).
[6] English: https://ssc.ca/en/publications/ssc-liaison/vol-36-1-february-2022/seeking-feedback-a-project-outlining-firsts-women