bioaccu-male-ation
Working in the field of conservation and environmental science as a female-identifying person, I have run into several issues that stemmed from my gender alone. In class the other day, I became aware that my less-than-conventional experiences as a woman in the field of environmental science is shared between other female-identifying (and non-binary, and non-cisgendered male) colleagues.
Image by Karl Magnuson | @kmagnuson. Folks standing in front of a sunrise, or sunset.
From topics that range from how non-cisgendered males are treated in the field (externally by the public and internally, between colleagues/supervisors), to not having access to resources that non-cisgendered male people need (appropriately fitting gear, equipment and sanitation supplies) this blog will reflect personal experiences from myself and others, and hopes to raise awareness to the issues that women, non-binary, and non-cisgendered men face while working to study and conserve our natural lands and ecosystems.
Bioaccumulation : defined as the net accumulation of a contaminant in or on an organism from all sources
For two summers, I’ve spent five days a week working for a sea turtle conservation program in South Florida. Field work included waking up hours before sunrise to be at the beach before day break, and working 8-12 hours under the blistering Florida sun, and showing up rain or shine, tropical storm or hurricane. While the more glamorous duties included collecting data on nesting sea turtle activity and rescuing baby sea turtles or “hatchlings”, less glamorous were the hours spent cleaning up nests which predators had dug up the evening before, or running as fast as possible a mile down the beach to catch up with a tractor that did not have clearance to be there as the surveying for endangered sea turtle species had not yet been completed. For wildlife and nature enthusiasts, working in the field is simultaneously the most rewarding experience as well as a mentally and physically challenging one. Quite unfortunately, gender identity plays a major role in just how challenging it may be.
IMAGE Sunburnt and sweating, but still smiling!
Being responsible for monitoring several miles of beach every day, and working under a sometimes strict deadline depending on any beach clearances that were required that day from the county/beach cleaners, my project had permission to drive an ATV on the beach. Training was required before operating the ATV on public property where endangered species like Snowy Plovers and sea turtles were nesting. Around members of the public, the ATV was never operated over 5 mph, and was kept at a safe distance so as not to interrupt the enjoyment of beachgoers.
IMAGE Preparing the ATV for a long morning of field work.
*This sea turtle monitoring, research, or rescue was conducted under Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission Marine Turtle permits 027, 054, 070, 048, and 028.
After wrapping up patrol one day, while washing off the ATV, I was approached by a disgruntled man. He shared some less-than kind words with me before making this statement:
“Back in my day, when women were women, they used to walk on the beach”
IMAGE by Mali Desha | @malidesha. This is what popped up when I searched stock images on Squarespace for “Grumpy Grandpa”.
Looking back and forth, between the ATV, the hose, and the man, I was caught speechless. Being the kind of person who always has something to say, and could have an engaging conversation with a wall… there are not many moments when I, Claire Marshall, is left without words. But facing discrimination and sexism with sweat dripping from my shirt, a sunburned face, covered in gritty sand from head to toe…. There just wasn’t much I could do to comprehend why he would say to me what he said. I’m just a person, doing my job. To him I was just a woman, insulting him by working to protect native, endangered wildlife, I suppose.
My experience with the public, facing discrimination based on my gender identity, is merly a diluted version of drastically uncomfortable, unjust, and downright dangerous experiences my colleagues in the field of conservation and environmental sciences have faced. In class the other day, I learned of more issues non-cisgendered males have faced in the field, from issues relating to menstruation needs, to facing downright harassment and discriminiation. Curious to find out more, I sought out experiences from a group of wildlife scientists. These are their stories.
Equipment Sizes
“One particular time where we were electrofishing for coho salmon parr and I had to electrofish, the backpack didn’t fit me. I had to bear the whole weight on my shoulders because the waist strap fell around under my stomach. Even if we took the time to adjust the straps for me it still wouldn't fit properly because it was designed for someone with a long torso”
“The market for women's gear (especially if you're on the smaller side) is miniscule, whereas the market for men is vast”
“Went to try on muck boots at Bass Pro so I’d have something less intense than waders for dip netting in vernal pools (not enough water to totally inundate the pools lately during CA winters). Took a quick look at them in the little foot mirror bench things they had in the shoe area and an older male employee came over to scold me out of nowhere saying “well they’re not going to match your prom dress!”. I was so stunned all I could say was “uh, I’m a biologist and I need them to survey for frogs and shrimp . . .”
“Also a safety issue with the large closed foot waders since if you're in deeper water you have to be extra careful about making sure the chest is tight enough so water doesn't get in and weigh you down too much”
IMAGE by Jessi-Lynn Gloria Rubin. Monitoring stream.
Proving worth
“My most egregious example was during my first job post-undergraduate, when my supervisor told me I needed to prove women could do the job (because his bosses didn't think a woman could handle it). That was a pretty rough way to start my post-grad career and it deflated my confidence. I'll never forget that.”
“A male colleague once assumed I didn’t like field work because I “don’t look like the type of girl to get my hands dirty”. Well, here’s to proving him and everyone else wrong”
“In hatchery settings, there are always "rituals" and tests to prove myself. Game warden and area manager tech was the same way but different tests. It can be a challenge to talk to some people as a woman. But, I have worked up my reputation as "the woman with brass balls" in both wildlife and fish sides of the field”
“In my forestry/natural resource conservation and management program I was one of 6 students in the entire program who was/is female. A lot of my fellow students/males really underestimated me in the beginning but near the end we reached a mutual understanding that it doesn’t matter what body parts I have. I’m just as capable as them. But there were things such as them not thinking I was physically capable of doing certain things (because I’m a thin medium height female). Even came to driving rougher roads for the lab. Had a professor stop and ask if I wanted to ride with him because he didn’t think I could handle driving the logging roads in my car. While it was out of the kindness of his heart it was a little offensive”
IMAGE by Destiny Beltran. Folks walking along trail.
Menstruation/Bathroom Issues
“Lack of tampons or pads during extended fire assignments have been a huge issue. If there’s ever a big fire nearby, I send tampons to the fire camp whether they ask for them or not.”
“The hardest part of the job was trying to find a place to go to the bathroom. In a fire ravaged area there is hardly any coverage and the place was crawling with tree crews. So the other female members and I (all 4 of us) had to walk/hike several yards away from our male partners to do our business. Oh! And there were cameras in our work trucks that pointed inside and outside the car so we couldn't use the trucks as shelter or changing areas. (The camera footage was viewed by old men in the company)”
“I worked as a biological technician in the vast prairies of South Dakota, I worked with two men, and when I had my period.... where do you change your tampon in the middle of an ocean of grass?!?! I would have to say something like "Bathroom break.. I'll be ..over here" and just walk 50 yards to the side, trust that they wouldn't turn around (I never felt that they would, there was trust between us all) and just drop trow and do a full tampon change in the middle of short, sparse, open grass, all the goods out for anyone to see”
IMAGE by Tanner Marquis, | @tanleemarquis. Outhouse.
Harassment
“While at a work Christmas party we had a white elephant and I ended up getting a huge 100+ piece tool set that I was BEYOND excited about. But I had several male coworkers come up to me and ask "what are you going to use those tools for?". At first I thought nothing of it until 5 or 6 people later kept asking me and I started to become beyond angry. I was so stunned I didn't even have a response besides "umm idk...use them? For projects?" As if I needed a specific reason or project to go get tools for. I became progressively angrier and angrier once I realized that if a male counterpart had gotten the tools instead, not a single person would've asked the same question”
“Working in fisheries I always get the uncomfortable conversations and comments from the public of “why are you here” or “ what’s a pretty thing like you doing out here this is no place for you”. I have felt unsafe quite a few times when working by myself. Even had some unknown person slash my tires on my work truck in an area that had no cell service and I was working by myself and only a few feet from my truck”
“Had a man pull up next to our work truck and ask if we work for the DNR. My male coworker and I both said yes. He then looks at me and asks "you work for the DNR too?" I was in the DRIVER'S SEAT of the truck”
“What bothers me the most, is something that I am sure is common to most of us. Whenever I’m alone in the field, a male goes “you shouldn’t be out here alone”. It essentially tells me the harmful thoughts that he is thinking about me, whether he thinks another male could do it to me, or potentially himself while I’m alone in the field. Either way, it always rattles me”
IMAGE by Marjan Blan | @marjanblan. Tool shed.
Male Authority
“I had a male professor in my undergrad that consistently chose male students for projects and other opportunities. This professor also happened to be my advisor. His preference toward my male peers was obvious. When I asked him for advice on getting into school, he simply replied, “you won’t get in.””
“Working in a fire crew only nonmale, I've been pushed out of the way while actively digging out a fire, and had tools taken out of my hands. I am good, I am strong, they made it incredibly unsafe, because they could "do it better"”
IMAGE by Matt Howard | hematthoward. Forest fire.
Trans Visibility
“I had to fight to be placed in the correct housing after my deadname was shared with the whole team and they put me on the wrong floor because they incorrectly assumed I was a woman. While I can understand different reasons for why separating housing based on gender exists, trying to enforce it in a binary way makes it difficult and sometimes dangerous for nonbinary folks like myself.
“None of my wildlife jobs have ever publicly recognized they may have trans men or nonbinary people in their office so all menstrual materials/support were just targeted to the women, so I was on my own for everything. Neither workplaces were safe places for me to be publicly out so I was on my own for having menstrual products and care for it in a way that wouldn’t out me as trans”
IMAGE by Lena Balk | @lenabalk. Trans pride flag.
Direct Exclusion
“I had an opportunity to do some research on an icebreaker ship in the Great Lakes while in graduate school, but didn't end up getting to go because I was going to be the only woman on the ship and they didn’t have enough space for me to bunk alone. There was space in the friend's room that he had to himself, but that wasn’t allowed. My father worked on icebreaker ships in the coast guard, I had heard about them my whole life. I was CRUSHED to find out I couldn’t go because I was a woman. Never had another chance materialize”
“I had a bander in charge who wouldn't let any of the women do certain menial tasks like chopping wood due to strength concerns (nothing I haven't been able to obliterate with a maul) and wouldn't let someone band her favourite bird species because her hands were too small (I've since learned 3 different methods of banding awkwardly sized passerines, and we sized our hands next to the guy who did band it. Same size.)”
“New male animal caregivers with less experience offered training and certifications us female caregivers had been asking for or wanted to participate in....but it wasn't "as safe" for us. As if we didn't run circles around these people. Aka chainsaw, larger tractors, dart gun, etc. We had to fight tooth and nail for those that were an absolute necessity for our jobs or to make the job of the maintenance team easier....but they just felt more comfortable training a male”
“I was turned down from a guaranteed trainee reserve management position because they had hired their first female before me and she “stuffed it up” so they would never hire one for that position again”
“I did an internship for my undergraduate capstone and the boss told me it would be fun for me to do a “What a Day as Field Biologist is Like” presentation for my undergraduate research… Meanwhile the man who worked for him the year before happened to be my boyfriend, and he gave him a variety of scientific data information for his capstone, and continued to offer him jobs in the future while consistently ghosting me when I reach out”
“It’s not a holistic, inclusive intersectional approach to say we will “accommodate” different minorities. You need to expect them to be there and plan for that”
Wether your employees are women, non-binary, transgender men, gender queer/fluid… we have to move from a reactive approach to gender discrimination in the work-force to a proactive response. The hardest part about being a firefighter should be saving homes and lives from destruction, not how to use the bathroom and find access to pads and tampons while in the field. It is not acceptable that non-cisgendered males have a difficult time finding equipment that fits them, especially when it comes to working with sensitive protocols such as electrofishing and forest firefighting. It is not acceptable that to feel comfortable working alone, in remote areas, and in a public-facing position, you must be a cisgendered male. Instead of non-cisgendered men having to prove their worth, employees and companies who sell field gear need to start proving theirs.
IMAGE by Destiny Beltran. Big cheesing after a big catch!
“As unfortunate as it is and it’s really hard for us women, it makes us stronger! I want nothing more than to get out there and lift heavy trap nets and gill nets and wear the electrofishing backpack all day and get gnarly back bruises, hook up the boat trailer and show them I can do it and I can do it better than most men!! Kudos to all of us ladies out here in the field!”
Kudos, indeed, to all of those working in the field of conservation and environmental sciences. Thank you to all of those who came together for this blog post to share your story. Through the power of storytelling, we can raise awareness and inspire those around us to take action against gender-based discrimination, and for that matter, all types of discrimitation in the workplace.
IMAGE Posing with a Northern Pike caught in a fish biodiversity survey off Toronto shore.
If you want to join a community of womxn and their allies in making the outdoor industry an open, non-discriminatory environment, check out the organization Project Respect Outdoors. Project Respect Outdoors allows people to share their story, giving them a platform and safe space to communicate with others, as well as the chance to participate in monthly coffee talks and in a Slack community group chat.
Having been accumulated throughout history, from one generation to the next, toxic masculinity, like any pesticide or herbicide, has the power to cause physical and psychological harm to those it comes in contact with. From excluding non-cisgendered men from certain fields, to making them so uncomfortable and/or invisible that they are forced to change career paths, the environmental sector has not been a welcoming place for people on various ends of the gender spectrum. Solving climate change and researching/conserving biodiversity are large obstacles in and of themselves. Any other hurdles we must jump along the way brings us that much further from our common goal of protecting this planet and its resources, for ourselves and for generations to come.
Credit
Thank you so much to all the humans that were brave enough and took the time to share their story with me, and for introducing me to the organization Project Respect Outdoors.
Afterword
This has been in the making since February 2022 — that is how long it has taken me to work on personal projects as of late. Let now be the time when that changes. People deserve to be heard.
