Author: Brenda Matthews
Affiliation: Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre, National Research Council of Canada
Country: Canada
Title: Equity and Inclusivity Efforts in Canadian Astronomy
Like many professional societies worldwide, the Canadian Astronomical Society has recently created an Equity and Inclusivity Committee (EIC) which exists to provide equity, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) input to the societyÕs board, trace demographics of the society and promote initiatives designed to foster greater equity and inclusivity in the astronomy community in Canada. Since its inception in 2015, the committee has created a Code of Conduct for CASCA meetings, conducted a climate survey and helped implement profile questions to allow for anonymous self-identification of gender, language, Indigenous status, disability, race and culture through the CASCA website.
In addition, CanadaÕs grants agency, the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council, is proceeding with a made-in-Canada implementation of the UK Athena SWAN program, to recognize and reward institutes and individuals who promote diversity and inclusivity. Renewed emphasis is also being placed on EDI initiatives at the National Research Council of Canada and within individual institutions and departments.
In this presentation, I will reflect on historical initiatives to improve diversity and their long term impact (e.g., NSERCÕs University Faculty Awards which were designed to address the barriers faced by women, and later also Aboriginal people, in Canadian universities), as well as describing the efforts underway now at the government and university levels, as well as within CANTAC, the time allocation committee for several of Canada’s national telescope facilities. I will discuss the role of CASCAÕs EIC in the astronomical community and present results on demographics over a 20 year baseline and the results of the climate survey. CASCA is currently conducting its third Long Range Plan, analogous to the US Decadal Survey in astronomy. That process has revealed several complementary efforts to track and enhance EDI in Canada.