Editorial: Women in Soil Science

Abstract

Welcome to this special edition of Women in Soil Science. The Spanish Journal of Soil Science is proud to offer this platform to celebrate the achievements of women in the field of Soil Science and hopefully inspire the next generation of female soil scientists. Led by Dr. Andrea Vidal, Dr. Michele Francis and Prof. Rosa Maria Poch, this Special Issue highlights the latest research from women in the Soil Science field from across the globe. At present, less than 30% of researchers worldwide are women. For example, in the US women represent only 24% of the soil scientists in academic faculty positions. Long-standing biases and gender stereotypes are discouraging girls and women away from science-related fields, and STEM research in particular. It is essential for both the progress of the field and the fulfilment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to change traditional mindsets and promote gender equality within the Soil Science field, as well as science more broadly. In this edition, we celebrate the women working in the wider field of Soil Science and we recognise their struggles to become scientists, especially in countries where the playing field is not level. Without an early education focused on strong reading and mathematical skills, a scientific career cannot follow. The eight papers presented here highlight the diversity of research performed across the entire breadth of Soil Science led by women. Four of the papers deal explicitly with the issue of gender in soil science, either from historical or geographical perspectives, giving visibility to women soil scientists whose contribution to Soil Science has not been given the recognition it merits. The remaining four papers illustrate soil research carried out or led by women in Mexico, Spain, Canada and Brazil showing excellence in science regardless of the authors’ gender. Díaz-Raviña and Caruncho are the authors of the interesting review: “A brief analysis of the contribution of women to Soil Science.” They present data on female soil scientist ratios in several countries from a time perspective, along with the socioeconomic and political reasons for their evolution. They explain what makes research led by women necessary for the advance of soil science and give reasons for its promotion from the early school years. Special attention is given to Russian and former soviet female soil scientists. Gerasimova’s contribution entitled “Maria Glazovskaya -A pioneer soil scientist and geochemist ahead of her time (1912–2016)” gives an account of one of these “forgotten” Russian soil scientists, who made essential contributions to the knowledge of the world soils and of soil geochemistry, establishing the bases for quantitative soil classification and putting forward some concepts considered hot issues today such as soil carbon pools and emissions; and environmental time bombs applied to soil pollution. The paper “Reevaluating diversity and the history of Women in soil sciences: a necessary step for a real change” (Reyes-Sánchez and Irazoque) deals with the implications of low diversity in the sciences. This review highlights how increasing diversity benefits the field in general. The authors present valuable data on historical discrimination of indigenous peoples and knowledge in Soil Edited by: Avelino Núñez-Delgado, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain