Editorial: Mind the (gender) gap: Prospects and strategies for women's career in ornithology

Abstract

On a small island, someone is patiently looking at the ocean, waiting for the shearwaters to come back to their nests, the hair blown by a gentle breeze, a laptop full of notes open on the legs. On the other side of the globe, perched on a high ladder, a scientist is checking a Pygmy Owl nest box. A cautious song breaks the stillness of the morning: spring is coming and soon the taiga will be alive with breeding activities. In a small lab, under a buzzing lamp, a young researcher is hunched over a pile of ancient bird bones. Each one echoes past stories of changing climate, warning us about the future. A lonely figure stands against a hazy sky, meditating on the battles won and those still to be fought, the sea far in the background, a flock of Honey Buzzards gliding smoothly above the head. All these people have two things in common: they are passionate ornithologists, spending their lives to deepen the knowledge on bird life, either in the field, in a laboratory or in front of a statistical software. And they are women. Only a few years ago, ornithology was a matter for men. Or at least, this is what emerges, at first glance, from the history of ornithology. Famous and internationally recognized personalities such as John Gould, Tommaso Salvadori or Ernst Mayr have overshadowed the work of female colleagues who for centuries have seen their involvement and activity in certain cultural areas, including the scientific one, strongly hindered by social and cultural rules.