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RMW’s Gender Advancement and Parity in STEM (GAPS) Program
The Gender Advancement and Parity in STEM (GAPS) program supports our work to reduce gender bias in our field.
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What is the The Gender Advancement and Parity in STEM (GAPS) program?
In short, the Gender Advancement and Parity in STEM (GAPS) program supports our work to reduce gender bias in our field through two major programs: the GAPS Mentorship Program and the GAPS Workforce Development Program.
The GAPS Mentorship Program connects emerging and more seasoned environmentalists and scientists from marginalized genders to network, support each other, and build capacity. The GAPS Workforce Development Program offers paid internships to people from marginalized genders and provide empowering real-world work experiences for people from marginalized genders exploring careers in biology and science.
What do we mean by "marginalized genders"?
Data has shown again and again that when we create programs for pay equity that are labeled and advertised as “for women,” cisgender women are more likely to apply than other women. And the statistics show that while cisgender women need parity programs, they aren’t as in need of advancement and parity programs as other genders…
Statistics for gender parity:
- All full-time workers had weekly median earnings of $1001 through the third quarter of 2021
- Men had weekly median earnings of $1100
- Women had weekly median earnings of $916.
- Transgender men had weekly median earnings of $700
- Nonbinary, gender non-conforming, or Two Spirit individuals had weekly median earnings of $698
- Transgender women had weekly median earnings of $600
Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics and America’s Transgender Wage Gap.
Statistics for STEM, specifically:
- Transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) students continue STEM majors at a rate of roughly 10% lower than their cisgender peers
- Nearly 54% of TGNC students in STEM fields reported feeling depressed frequently compared to 15% of cisgender students in STEM fields
- 30% of TGNC students in STEM fields regularly sought personal counseling, compared to 8% of their cisgender peers
Too many gender parity programs focus exclusively on cisgender women, which decreases the gender pay gap between cisgender men and cisgender women, but it greatly increases the already large gender pay gap between cisgender people and everyone else.
We have chosen to focus our efforts on all women, transgender men, nonbinary, gender non-conforming, and Two Spirit individuals who need help achieving advancement and parity. And we have chosen to not just work around recruitment and parity, but also provide an avenue for people to connect with others, so they have the support they need to succeed.
The GAPS Mentorship Program
The GPS Mentorship Program connects emerging and more seasoned environmentalists and scientists from marginalized genders together to network, support each other, and build capacity.
The program seeks to:
- Connect emerging and seasoned environmentalists and scientists from marginalized genders and help those connections flourish through networking and educational opportunities.
- Using the connections of the mentorship participants, provide increased access to organizations and opportunities that may have otherwise been out of reach.
- Provide a closed forum for mentorship participants to share resources, concerns, questions, advice, and support (through Slack).
- Develop a diverse network of environmentalists and scientists from marginalized genders in the Southern Rocky Mountain region.
The GAPS Workforce Development Program
Past GAPS intern, Tessa Lightfoot, on top of Colorado’s first wildlife overpass!
Pre-COVID, Rocky Mountain Wild offered at least one paid internship a year to people from historically marginalized genders. These interns could either assist our biologists in one or more projects in the field, assist our support staff in advocacy projects, or create a new program of their choosing.
While the program has been on hiatus since COVID, we are looking into ways we can improve the program to lead to more workforce development opportunities. Stay tuned!
Join the GAPS Mentorship Program
We are inviting seasoned environmentalists and scientists from marginalized genders to submit themselves as mentors for this program.
To register, you’ll want to fill out the mentor survey below, which includes the following information:
- Select how you’d like to interact with the program (options currently are: connecting one-on-one with a mentee, having your contact information shared with all mentees so you can support them as they need, participating at network events, or offering your expertise in workshops or trainings),
- How you want to share your contact information,
- What skills and expertise you have,
- What skills you are interested in learning together through the program, and
- Identity questions (some mentees may need to speak with someone on personal matters in the workforce that are tied to their identity or intersections. We are asking mentors, if they feel comfortable, to answer some identity-related questions for matching purposes).
We are inviting emerging environmentalists and scientists from marginalized genders to submit themselves as mentees for this program.
To register, you’ll want to fill out the mentor survey below, which includes the following information:
- Select how you’d like to interact with the program (options currently are: connecting one-on-one with a mentor, reaching out to mentors who have provided their contact information for this purpose as needed for help or advice, participating at network events, or attending workshops or trainings),
- How you want to share your contact information,
- What skills you are interested in learning together through the program, and
- Your gender identity (optional).
Mentees will remain mentees for one year, at which time, they will be invited to join as mentors! If a mentee would like additional time in the program as a mentee, they are also welcome to do that.
Past GAPS Interns in their own words:
