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career ladder progression; conference presenters; discrimination;
evolutionary biology; gender difference; implicit bias; invited speakers; leaky pipeline; scientific visibility; sex ratios
Abstract:
Lower visibility of female scientists, compared to male scientists, is a potential
reason for the under-representation of women among senior academic
ranks. Visibility in the scientific community stems partly from presenting
research as an invited speaker at organized meetings. We analysed the sex
ratio of presenters at the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB)
Congress 2011, where all abstract submissions were accepted for presentation.
Women were under-represented among invited speakers at symposia
(15% women) compared to all presenters (46%), regular oral presenters
(41%) and plenary speakers (25%). At the ESEB congresses in 2001–2011,
9–23% of invited speakers were women. This under-representation of
women is partly attributable to a larger proportion of women, than men,
declining invitations: in 2011, 50% of women declined an invitation to
speak compared to 26% of men. We expect invited speakers to be scientists
from top ranked institutions or authors of recent papers in high-impact journals.
Considering all invited speakers (including declined invitations), 23%
were women. This was lower than the baseline sex ratios of early-mid career
stage scientists, but was similar to senior scientists and authors that have
published in high-impact journals. High-quality science by women therefore
has low exposure at international meetings, which will constrain Evolutionary
Biology from reaching its full potential. We wish to highlight the wider
implications of turning down invitations to speak, and encourage conference
organizers to implement steps to increase acceptance rates of invited talks.
