Abstract 204 – Being a female bear biologist in South America: The context and challenge for ”osologas”

Roxana Rojas-VeraPinto, Viviana Albarracín, Adriana Reyes

Women play an active role in the study and conservation of the Andean bear despite facing
challenges during their work related to gender stereotypes and physiological process. Our
research aims to promote the female bear community and their contribution to the knowledge
of the Andean bear. In 2022, we conducted an online survey with the female Andean bear
community. The questionnaire involved the characterization of this community and their work
experience. Then, we summarized women authorship within the literature related to the
Andean bear. We used bilingual keywords searches (English and Spanish) to find academic
theses, journals and IBA News publications from the 20th century to 2023. References were
classified according to the authorship gender and the publication themes. We received 13
replies which were principally women above 30 years old (n=11) with have at least one family
member under their responsibility (n=8). The majority have a degree in ecology or biology (n=8)
with a MS or PhD (n=8) and work principally for non-governmental institutions (n=8). Gender
inequality was a disadvantage for most respondents (n=9), because of the chauvinistic
perceptions or attitudes they received by local stakeholders. Despite these challenges in rural
contexts, the majority (n=8) of female do not feel undervalued by their colleagues. From the
literature review, we encountered 107 theses of which 65 (49 honor, 8 master and 8 doctorate
dissertations) were developed by women. Of particular note is that most doctorate theses
focused on Andean bears were developed by women (8 of 10) and the most common studied
theme was human-bear interactions (n=16). Female authorship was present in 125 from 223
scientific publications, and specifically 48 from 83 IBA News publications since 2002. The most
popular themes were captive bears in scientific publication (n=24) and conservation and
environmental education (n=21), respectively. We need to continue inspiring new students,
promoting the work of women, and tackling the significant challenges encountered in rural
areas.