Achieving Gender Equity at Conferences

In 2015, an international conference on quantum chemistry drew a fierce backlash from scientists when it featured only male speakers and chairs.  About 1,700 scientists signed a petition on Change.org to change the makeup of the speakers. The result? Conference organizers added 6 female speakers to the agenda (read the coverage).

This was not an isolated case. The lack of gender equity at
scientific conferences persists across the board. There have been several
papers written about the imbalance; there is even a website, BiasWatchNeuro, that tracks the speaker composition at neuroscience
conferences.

Inviting
women to speak at conferences matters for many reasons – it’s a matter of
fairness; it gives eminently qualified women a level playing field; it is just
the right thing to do.   

And it is important to have diversity across many dimensions, including representation of individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, from a variety of regions and institutions, career stages, and with disabilities.

In essence, it’s about changing the fundamental culture of
the biomedical research enterprise to allow full participation from people
of all backgrounds. 

In that vein, I’d like to remind you that if you are applying for an R13 conference grant from NIH, please be sure to read the requirements in the Funding Opportunity Announcement.  Should you receive a conference grant award, you will be required to comply with the Conf...

Source: NIH Extramural Nexus - July 22, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Mike Lauer Tags: blog Open Mike Diversity gender equity manel R13 Source Type: funding