To celebrate International Women’s Day 2025, we are excited to share a collection of blog posts showcasing the work of some of the BES community. In each post, they discuss their experiences in ecology, as well as what this year’s theme, ‘Accelerate Action’, means to them.
What work do you do?
I’m an ecologist working on interdisciplinary projects on climate and biodiversity with applications in climate action, restoration and conservation. I’m also a Co-Director of a multi-institutional and multi-jurisdictional research centre across Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain – the Climate+ Co-Centre – and Director of the AIB Trinity Climate Hub within Trinity College Dublin. My time is split between providing strategic direction for large research initiatives, managing professional staff and managing research staff and PhD students. I also work as a Senior Editor for Journal of Ecology which keeps me grounded in my core discipline of plant ecology.
How did you get into ecology?
I was very interested in nature and global environmental issues as a kid and loved science at school, when I went to university I gravitated towards plants and ecology but always maintained an interest in how plants interact with animals, the wider environment and people.
Who inspires you?
I get inspiration from brilliant ecologists including Professor Anne Magurran, Professor Jane Memmott and the late Professor Dame Georgina Mace. Not only have they done fantastic work they support and mentor other researchers and are great role models. I also get inspiration from researchers in other disciplines and try to cast my net widely in terms of looking for methods and approaches from other areas including climate science, policy development, social sciences, innovation and the arts.
How do you think we could ‘accelerate action’ within ecology and science, to move towards gender equality?
The gender equality landscape has changed a lot over the last couple of decades since I was a student, there are many more women in senior positions now and many more role models at all career stages. There are still structural issues with an academic career that make it more difficult for women, particularly the timing of the reproductive window which often coincides with a critical time in women’s careers and the mobility needed to chase opportunities.
Levelling the playing field means that societal expectations need to change – so that women are not expected to do the majority of caring work. An example of this societal expectation is that I am always the parent that is contacted by my kids’ school, even when we asked for my husband to be the primary contact. I also think that there are different expectations for men and women academics in the work environment with higher service and teaching expectations for women, this is tied to societal expectations in the “caring” realm. Enabling men to take significant paternity leave and fairness in the expectations for different kinds of academic work are important enablers of equity.
