Gender equity at scientific events

Florence Débarre · Nicolas O. Rode · Line V. Ugelvig

60 citations0/0 files storedEvolution Letters

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Career Development and Diversity Gender Diversity and Inequality Diversity and Career in Medicine

Abstract

Although the proportion of women in science, and in evolutionary biology in particular, has substantially increased over the last century, women remain underrepresented in academia, especially at senior levels. In addition, their scientific achievements do not always receive the same level of recognition as do men's, which can be reflected in a lower relative representation of women among invited speakers at conferences or specialized courses. Using announcements sent to the EvolDir mailing list between April 2016 and September 2017, and the symposium programs of three large evolutionary biology congresses held in summer 2017, we quantified the representation of women announced as invited speakers in conferences, congress symposia, and specialized courses. We compared the proportion of invited women to a baseline estimated using membership data of the associated scientific societies, and surveyed organizers to investigate their influence and that of potential gender-ratio guidelines on the proportion of invited women. We find that the average proportion of invited women is comparable (conferences), significantly lower (specialized courses), or significantly higher (congress symposia) than the current baseline (32% women). It is positively correlated to the proportion of women among the organizers, and it is on average higher for events whose organizers considered gender when choosing speakers than for those whose organizers did not. To investigate the impact of Equal Opportunity guidelines, we then collected longitudinal data on the proportion of invited women at two series of congresses, covering the 2001-2017 period. The proportion of invited women is higher when Equal Opportunity guidelines are announced. Encouraging women to sit on organizing committees of scientific events, and the establishment of visible Equal Opportunity guidelines, thus could be ways to ensure higher number of invited female speakers in the future. Our results suggest that change, if desired, requires deliberate actions.

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References

2012Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students 2010Why so Few Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics 2014How stereotypes impair women’s careers in science 2014What’s in a Name: Exposing Gender Bias in Student Ratings of Teaching 2006“Someone Like Me can be Successful”: Do College Students Need Same-Gender Role Models?2003Exploring the Color of Glass: Letters of Recommendation for Female and Male Medical Faculty 2017Gender diversity leads to better science 2012The Matilda Effect in science: Awards and prizes in the US, 1990s and 2000s

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