Living and working in the cold - Antarctica: Global Science from a Frozen Continent - page 251

Box 8.6 Women in Antarctica

Whilst the early Antarctic expeditions consisted only of men, it began to be clear
in some countries after the IGY that women could play a productive part in Antarctic
work. Initially, it was the United States that began to take female scientists down in
1969 when a party of six worked at McMurdo and visited Pole Station. National
operators were generally reluctant to establish mixed communities, often apparently
assuming that small numbers of women in amale-dominated community would give
rise to serious management problems. Change was therefore slow but by 1975 there
had been women scientists wintering at McMurdo and female logistic staff. The
United States continued to recruit regardless of gender and these days women make
up around 30% of the people working at McMurdo in summer. Australia followed
the American lead with a woman wintering as the Macquarie Island doctor in 1976
and in 1981 another woman doctor at Davis Station. Very slowly other countries
introduced women into their programmes, initially as summer participants and
usually as scientists or doctors. Nowadays, virtually all Antarctic countries have an
open opportunity policy that is gender neutral, but the proportion of women on
most stations is still fairly low as there are relatively few women in the physical
sciences and even fewer technically quali

ed as plumbers, engineers, carpenters and
other tradespeople. However, the mixed communities typical of present Antarctic
stations have changed the ethos, making it easier to recruit highly quali ed staff now

that women are not excluded, providing a more normal atmosphere whilst not
signi cantly changing the usual range of management problems.

Figure 8.27 Rose Meyer gets pretty

cold when refuelling airplanes at
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
(Credit: Kristina Scheerer, NSF)

equipment and understanding the science that will be taking place during the
year. Everyone needs to be up-to-date in their general first aid certi cation and

most go through a more intensive c to the harsh

environment and likely challenges they will face. Most programmes also take
staff through

first aid training that is speci

re- ghting training. Fire is an extreme danger in Antarctica where