It was 2021, and we were not feeling good. COVID-19 was in full force. Personally we were experiencing lockdown conditions, disruptions to our work, schooling and childcare arrangements. Our social media feeds were lighting up with stories about how women scientists were disproportionately exposed to the negative career impacts of the pandemic.
The US was reeling from the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder and racially motivated abuse and attacks against Asian-American-Pacific Islander peoples, and we and our students were leaving the lab to attend protests – or worrying that our own neighborhoods would be engulfed in violence. Nature Communications had just published an article (now retracted) indicating that scientists mentored by women had worse career outcomes.
We were a multi-racial team of women, mentors and mentees who lived in or had strong connections with the US.
A Positive Mission
We belonged to a team of Editors-in-Chief (EiCs) and Associate Editors (AEs) at the Journal of Hydrology. We were joined in a positive mission: two of us had accepted EiC roles and used them to recruit women AEs to the Journal. In doing this, we had shifted the gender imbalance of that editorial board by the largest quantum we could. But the circumstances were crying out for more positive action. We decided to use the platform we had at the Journal of Hydrology to create a special issue: “Women in Hydrology – Celebrating the contributions of mentors, researchers and leaders.”
We designed the special issue to offer two things we felt were important – an open celebration of women hydrologists, and a chance for women hydrologists to publish work at a time when research and publishing was frankly difficult. We invited the mentees of prominent female hydrologists to write reviews of their mentors’ careers, reflecting on their academic achievements and also their roles in leadership, education and mentoring.
Exceptional Women Hydrologists
Eight teams of mentees ultimately wrote thoughtful and impressive accounts of the career contributions of hydrologists Laura Lautz, Barbara Sherwood Lollar, Kamini Singha, Ying Fan, Catherine Peters, Emily Bernhardt, Nancy Grimm and Chantel Gascuel-Odoux – a collection of women who among them showcase the depth, vibrancy and diversity of the hydrological discipline.
Other than being exceptionally substantial and high quality researchers, these women were also united by working in interdisciplinary branches of hydrology – at the interface of hydrology with agriculture, urban planning, ecology, geophysics, biogeochemistry and more. They were also, uniformly, recognized as exceptional mentors who “uplifted and empowered students” [Deng et al. 2022] and who have made their fields of study more “open, accessible and welcoming” [Singley et al. 2023].
More than 60% of the mentees who wrote these papers are in tenure-track positions at universities, and 65% of these mentees identify as women or non-binary. We think the sustained success of these authors speaks to the value of having women in senior positions to promote inclusion, support and excellence.
Opportunities for Exploration
In addition to profiling leading women in hydrology, the Special Issue provided opportunities for women- led or women-majority teams to write review articles – something that was more achievable during travel restrictions and lockdowns than other academic efforts in hydrology – or to contribute research papers on any topic relevant to the journal.
Unsurprisingly, these papers covered many subjects, and a notable subset of papers used the Special Issue as a chance to explore diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) concepts related to hydrology. Our editorial team also collaborated with Jim Wescoat and Karletta Chief to write what we believe is the first history of women’s contributions to hydrological science [Ali et al. 2023].
Word cloud produced from the abstracts of the 50 articles in the Special Issue. Women in hydrology: Pioneering interdisciplinary advances and mentorship in science, Journal of Hydrology, June 2025 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2025.133146
Sharing Experiences
Finally, we used the Special Issue as a way to learn about the experiences of the authors of the papers. We surveyed contributors to the Special Issue, learning that we were disproportionately white/European (78%) and heterosexual (71%), that about half of us lived with a spouse/significant other (52%), and about a quarter of us (24%) had children.
Most of us had increased the time we spent providing childcare, schooling or housekeeping during the pandemic, and almost everyone was stressed by the pandemic circumstances. Respondents identified career challenges based on a perceived need to constantly “prove themselves” and with managing work-life balance particularly when raising children – challenges that were amplified by issues of intersectionality where women were also gay, transgender or non-white.
In the face of these challenges, mentorship and camaraderie among female hydrologists emerged as a true positive. Eighty six percent of respondents identified that they had a mentor who advanced their career progression, and 30% of respondents highlighted the importance of support from other women in the field.
Lights in the Dark?
This Special Issue is a small, but positive, contribution to a more inclusive and diverse hydrological and STEM community. Sadly, the threat that the pandemic posed to this goal almost seems laughable now as we face the concerted, Government-backed attacks on science and diversity in the US today – attacks which feel more targeted and personal than any virus could ever be. It’s 2025, and we are not feeling good.
So in another difficult time, we invite you to read the Special Issue and reflect on the power and value of science and the importance of including as many voices as possible to execute it. Please don’t take these things for granted. And then please join us, and the wonderful community who contributed to this body of work, in committing to strength, camaraderie and mutual support: the lights that keep us going in the dark.
