tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post5953044533636226975..comments2024-03-25T02:33:41.590-05:00Comments on FemaleScienceProfessor: Man Boy(cott) 2011Female Science Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15288567883197987690noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-4269352434087587452011-11-18T16:18:47.162-06:002011-11-18T16:18:47.162-06:00I was on a course once, the students were a 50/50 ...I was on a course once, the students were a 50/50 ratio. I didn't notice at the time but when we were reviewing the course on the last day, it suddenly dawned on me that there was only one female speaker out of the twenty. Maybe it was just that my undergrad was in a male dominated field but I still find it perplexing that I didn't even notice the weirdly skewed speaker ratios in a biological field and I'm female!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-46868939673584324022011-11-17T21:35:58.651-06:002011-11-17T21:35:58.651-06:00Clearly default thinking has shaped the conference...Clearly default thinking has shaped the conference. I am wondering more about who planned it, and also if being part of the conference planning would be interesting to you.<br />Although how many issues can one person tackle successfully?Desireehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00331108175137673106noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-588504552181775432011-11-17T13:18:25.659-06:002011-11-17T13:18:25.659-06:00In the American Society for Cell Biology, the Wome...In the American Society for Cell Biology, the Women in Cell Biology committee helps make sure no one can say "I couldn't think of a woman in that field"<br /><br />"WICB Speaker Referral Service<br />Women in Cell Biology (WICB) Committee Speaker Referral Service. Organizers of scientific meetings, scientific review panels, and university symposia/lecture series are increasingly aware that a balanced gender representation at the podium or in the review process makes for a better and more interesting outcome. WICB has developed two processes that allow organizers, early in meeting planning stages, to receive a list of outstanding women in relevant field(s), women whom they can then consider as invitees and reviewers."<br /><br />More details are at<br /><br />http://www.ascb.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=94&Itemid=147<br /><br />Mark PAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-17323475361693769952011-11-17T00:42:58.939-06:002011-11-17T00:42:58.939-06:00I voted "nonissue" because I go to few c...I voted "nonissue" because I go to few conferences.<br /><br />One of them has as close to a gender balance as one can get in a computational field (more balanced than the field itself).<br /><br />The other has no keynotes, but has speakers invited by how well the do in a contest that is the whole rationale for the conference. That conference has a very large gender imbalance, but the speakers are not significantly more imbalanced than the audience.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-85194633384368173042011-11-16T20:16:49.254-06:002011-11-16T20:16:49.254-06:00A few points:
* Sometimes you just have to go to...A few points: <br /><br />* Sometimes you just have to go to a conference because of the subject, and you don't have a choice.<br /><br />* Fellow commenters, do you *really* think that all conference speakers are always chosen strictly with regard to scholarly excellence? Bull. I know plenty of people who got invited because of who their advisor was or because someone was scrambling for a local speaker to save on travel funds or because the organizer wanted to hear one of their buddies speak. <br /><br />* Conferences that have only male speakers despite the presence of excellent women in the field often do have a certain atmosphere that is not so pleasant for a woman attendee. If I can do similar networking and learn similar stuff at a conference with a nicer atmosphere, I'm voting with my feet. It's not a boycott, it's a desire not to waste my time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-54165762360491045852011-11-16T19:38:25.179-06:002011-11-16T19:38:25.179-06:00Its a non-issue for me (I'm a man), but I alwa...Its a non-issue for me (I'm a man), but I always think poorly on the organizers when this kind of embarrassment happens.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-33776781073178220642011-11-16T14:38:23.160-06:002011-11-16T14:38:23.160-06:00What about a related situation? Suppose I am orga...What about a related situation? Suppose I am organizing a conference (it doesn't matter if I'm male or female) and I invite many women. What is the right approach when morons tell you you're doing some sort of "affirmative action" for them, and instead you should invite the best in the field (and by best they usually mean old white guys)?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-51015751602582382922011-11-16T14:09:05.459-06:002011-11-16T14:09:05.459-06:00Honestly, it never occurs to me until I get to the...Honestly, it never occurs to me until I get to the conference and sit through the talks. So, no, it's never influenced my decision to attend.<br /><br />However...<br /><br />I can remember many times in the last 15 years that I've listened to talk after talk by balding white men. Yet, the audience is filled with all kinds of people... including, young, non-white, women with full heads of spiky pink hair, etc. <br /><br />"No," you say, "I can't choose my panel just for diversity." But, in fact, conference organizers must think of the BROADER IMPACTS of their choices, beyond just which of their friends will feel slighted if he is not invited to speak.MamaRoxnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-47953868400812069292011-11-16T13:45:16.140-06:002011-11-16T13:45:16.140-06:00I think it's important to look at how many wom...I think it's important to look at how many women are actually in the field. It's definitely a problem that there aren't more female speakers, but perhaps the way to fix this is from the ground up and get more women involved science.Peterhttp://bestcalgarydrivingschool.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-18705291911739299292011-11-16T13:19:34.144-06:002011-11-16T13:19:34.144-06:00I appalled myself by voting "No", and I ...I appalled myself by voting "No", and I am a fellow FSP who is reasonably aware of these things. Yet I don't parse the conference line-up by gender very often -- sometimes I do. And I simply don't ever remember having this be a factor in deciding whether to attend. Maybe it's because in my field this isn't a big issue?? We are about 25 - 30% female, and conferences that really do not include female speakers are rare. I know that I've been annoyed by this once or twice in the past, but I can't remember which conferences they were. I think I used to care more about this particular issue in the past, but I think I've let this one go.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-19353956664067433432011-11-16T12:20:51.840-06:002011-11-16T12:20:51.840-06:00In the example given in the above comment by Annel...In the example given in the above comment by Anneliese, if 12% of 10000 possible speaker candidates were female, and we assumed simple random sampling of 10 speakers, there would be a 72% chance that 1 or more speakers were women and a 28% chance that 0 speakers are women. Therefore, statistically speaking, we should not be surprised to see 0, 1, or 2 female speakers at the event. In a field that is even more male dominated, these numbers would statistically change accordingly, and may reach a point in some subfields where it would be statistically improbable to see even 1 feamle speaker. Again this is based completely on assumed random sampling<br /><br />So then the nuanced question is should conference organizers weigh the sampling of women more heavily than the sampling of men to ensure that there is at least one (or more) female speaker at the event, regardless of the proportion of females in the subfield? My personal opinion is on this question is no because I cannot justify how that would be fair to potential speakers.Elizabethnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-82854860353353605812011-11-16T12:02:51.022-06:002011-11-16T12:02:51.022-06:00I am in computer security. There are a handful of ...I am in computer security. There are a handful of women. What I decide upon is if there are women on the program committee. An all-male PC signals a narrow perspective, possibly a PC built on closed social ties. So I decrease my expectations for the quality of the event (and thus the attendees). Thus it can be a fairly major factor in my decision to attend.just sayinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01325255534600442865noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-2777649000073810452011-11-16T11:44:14.993-06:002011-11-16T11:44:14.993-06:00I think this is a great question. I am an establi...I think this is a great question. I am an established female professor and I am so used to seeing men at the top of the ticket that I don't even flinch anymore. This post has encouraged me to get off my behind and start proactively sending names of qualified female speakers to conference organizers. If I have provided names ahead and then we still get an all-male lineup then I will pretty much know, definitively that that was a choice-particularly if I confirm that the women were not asked. I think it is better to be proactive than reactive. Thanks for the action-inducing post FSP!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-47359005653621673932011-11-16T11:39:15.909-06:002011-11-16T11:39:15.909-06:00To anonymous at 12:54:
The real question you shou...To anonymous at 12:54:<br /><br />The real question you should ask is:<br /><br />How many of the invited speakers are not in the top 10% of the field and are there any women that are more accomplished than the list of all male speakers?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-35468155201062636252011-11-16T11:26:24.038-06:002011-11-16T11:26:24.038-06:00I don't see how quietly boycotting a conferenc...I don't see how quietly boycotting a conference would make one iota of difference to the organizers. I think it's true that organizers don't sit down and think, "okay, let me pick 10 men for the slate; definitely no women." If there are no women it's because it's an unconscious bias. So the only was to have any impact is to draw attention to this fact. If you simply don't go, no one knows why you didn't go -- and probably no one cares that you're not there. If you make a *big deal* out of not going and try to make it as public as possible -- to the organizers and to the attendees -- then you're actually making a statement. But, I would argue that statement might be misplaced exactly *because* the omission is likely an unconscious bias and/or women were invited and couldn't come. So the only reasonable response, in my mind, is to communicate directly with the organizers before the conference. Ask bluntly, "why are there no women?" You might get the answer, "we invited 7 men and 3 women and none of the women could come, so we invited another 1 woman and 2 men, and that woman couldn't come and so we filled the slot with a man." Or you might get an embarrassed and/or defensive "oh, gosh. Well just because." That's the response you'd expect if there's an unconscious bias. But now you've done what's right. You've alerted the organizer to his (or her -- women do this too!) unconscious bias. Next time s/he's much more likely to be aware of that bias when making choices. If the organizer is a dick about it when replying to you, then go for Plan #1 and make a *big deal* about boycotting it and making sure everyone knows why you're boycotting it. Otherwise, go. Talk nicely to the organizer at the conference and say something like, "I'm sure next time there will be women speakers" so that the organizer understands that this is an expectation. <br /><br />Anon at 01:05:00 AM, you said that writing to the organizers is unsatisfying -- I'd expect that if the organizers are being defensive about their realization of their own bias -- and humiliating. Humiliating?!? Please explain.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-19272859783047304682011-11-16T11:24:23.701-06:002011-11-16T11:24:23.701-06:00http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2...http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2011/11/12/all-male-conferences/Phillip Helbighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12067585245603436809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-6747794483832433212011-11-16T10:40:18.903-06:002011-11-16T10:40:18.903-06:00Ironically I just received an invite to an all mal...Ironically I just received an invite to an all male speaker symposium in honor of a recently deceased older male in the department. What to do, what to do?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-21854524825189452752011-11-16T10:27:11.566-06:002011-11-16T10:27:11.566-06:00There are two issues here. a. Should you attend ...There are two issues here. a. Should you attend and b. should this be brought to the attention of the organizers. Yes on b. YMMV on AEliRabetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07957002964638398767noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-65573760991459754772011-11-16T10:19:23.933-06:002011-11-16T10:19:23.933-06:00I voted that it was a non issue for me, but that&#...I voted that it was a non issue for me, but that's not entirely true. I only go to one or two main conferences in my field every year, so the gender of the speakers will not affect my decision to go (especially if I have a paper to present myself). But as pointed out by FemaleGradStudent, I would definitely notice, wonder how that situation came about and how it might be changed.Aislinghttp://almostthere.over-blog.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-26209357556328196052011-11-16T10:10:39.358-06:002011-11-16T10:10:39.358-06:00This is a topic that I (a postdoctoral biologist) ...This is a topic that I (a postdoctoral biologist) have been thinking about, prompted by a recent all-male speakers departmental seminar series. Having given it a lot of thought, I draw parallels with the Bechdel test for assessing movies (to pass the test a movie has to 1) have at least two women in it, 2) who talk to each other, 3) about something other than a man - a surprisingly large number don't pass).<br /><br />In a perfect world it wouldn't matter if any one movie passes the test or if by shear random chance the keynote speakers for any one conference are all male or indeed all female, but when women continue to be under-represented in science to have only male speakers is not ok. On a personal level I'd still go, but it would be noted and as FemaleGradStudent said it would make me cautious. I don't want to have to wonder if the lack of women is deliberate on behalf of the organisers or if they are just clueless, when I could be concentrating on the science.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-34345581077472802902011-11-16T09:51:23.969-06:002011-11-16T09:51:23.969-06:00This is interesting to me. I'm a chemist, whic...This is interesting to me. I'm a chemist, which is typically a male-heavy discipline at this level, but my two major sub-fields are both represented well by women. However, where I see lack of diversity is in where they were trained. We have a couple 'networks' of bigwigs who churn out and market their post-docs heavily. While I'm pleased that these people are so supportive of their trainees, the problem is that they all think about things the same way, which leads to an overbearing 'groupthink' mentality. If you have an alternate viewpoint or a new idea, you have to work against the 'machine' to get it out there.Dochttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10252953539557435895noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-21976874731116773252011-11-16T09:12:21.217-06:002011-11-16T09:12:21.217-06:00I am a woman and I choose first option, partially ...I am a woman and I choose first option, partially because I think at my stage of career, I choose to go to conference to increase my visibility in the field. I don't care if there are all man keynote speakers or all women keynote speakers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-58686553284632238032011-11-16T09:03:57.707-06:002011-11-16T09:03:57.707-06:00it doesn't make a difference make a difference...it doesn't make a difference make a difference to me. If it makes a difference to you, then you are a bigot. We should be gender blind when it comes to science. Not going to a conference because of the gender of the speakers is nothing but bigotry.ChemGradStudentnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-8988462312389717172011-11-16T08:52:44.139-06:002011-11-16T08:52:44.139-06:00Given that I know that my field has many women in ...Given that I know that my field has many women in it, when I see a slate of all male speakers, I feel confident that I will not feel welcome at that particular conference.<br /><br />I attended one such conference, once, as an early faculty. Based on that experience, I now watch the speaker list and make judgments about whether I will attend based on it. The isolation of the speaker list spilled over to "boys will be boys" in other conference behavior as well, in ways that were not typical for that conference on a year-to-year basis. It is just not worth my time to put up with that bull, when I can hear most of the speakers some other year at a different conference in a comfortable environment.<br /><br />My time, grant money, and emotional energy are all too valuable to contribute (even passively) to that kind of setup.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-16056631482375674542011-11-16T08:37:48.962-06:002011-11-16T08:37:48.962-06:00Just today in the UK Guardian there was a letter f...Just today in the UK Guardian there was a letter from a group of women saying that they will not attend all male panels: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/nov/15/men-only-policy-debates-must-go<br /><br />The organisation responsible for organising the major conference I go to each year has been asking all conveners to consider gender balance in co-conveners and presenters (alongside considering young scientists). It seems that this gentle nudge has made some impact.Jennyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03760659823315607666noreply@blogger.com