“Mother Nature needs her daughters”: all-women Antarctic expedition sets off

Professor Lindsay Stringer from the University of Leeds is one of 76 members of an all-female expedition heading out to the Antarctic tomorrow (Friday 2 December). The group will spend 20 days in the frozen environment learning leadership skills to fight climate change and to overcome male prejudice.

The expedition, called Homeward Bound, was the initiative of Australian entrepreneur Fabian Dattner, who was inspired to do it after hearing polar scientists joke that candidates “had to have a beard to land a leadership job in Antarctic science”, according to an interview with Thomson Reuters, which is also carried in The Independent and the International Business Times. The story was subsequently carried by BBC News Online and others, including The Huffington Post.

Professor Stringer, who is Professor of Environment and Development and a member of the Priestley International Centre for Climate, is an expert on land degradation and climate change (read a policy brief about her book, Land Degradation, Desertification and Climate Change here).

Professor Lindsay Stringer

Climate change is likely to kill more women than men, yet only 28 per cent of researchers are female. “Mother Nature needs her daughters,” said Fabian Dattner.

Main photo: Homeward Bound