Gender Perspectives: Women in Fluid Dynamics

The purpose of this work is to summarise key responses and output data from women working in fluid dynamics, on barriers in the field and opportunities to improve equity and inclusion. These responses have been collected over a 4-year period as part of a wider social media initiative, '@AeroWomen' (https://twitter.com/AeroWomen), which to-date has featured 192 women, with the aim of highlighting their contributions in fluid dynamics through weekly published Q&As. In addition, responses have been obtained and anonymised on issues in the fluid dynamics field including: (1) 'what barriers/challenges have you faced/overcome in your career path?' (n=97, 51% response rate, initial 25 responses: tinyurl.com/y9tpa5sn); (2) 'what do you currently see as being the major obstacle to women entering your field?' (n=114, 59% response rate, initial 36 responses: tinyurl.com/y7t7ahp2); and (3) 'what would you like to see in order for women's career progression in your field to be sustained and better supported?' (n=107; 56% response rate, initial 33 responses: tinyurl.com/ya4eh2zx). The data obtained affords comparisons by sector (academia and industry), career stage (early, mid, and senior), and geography (Americas, Europe, and Asia & Africa). Initial data analysis for (3) for example shows that the issue of equality in academia is perceived to be more significant, i.e. less well addressed, than in industry where the need for mentorship takes on a more significant role for supporting career progression. Comparison by career stage shows equality is the key issue with the need for visible role models (early career) and mentorship (mid and senior) of secondary importance; the need for more flexible working is equally recognised across career stages. In addition to providing qualitative summaries on these and other key issues, further work to analyse responses and recommendations in-depth to provide quantitative summaries will be undertaken and presented as part of this work.