Balanced conferences encourage female scientists

摘要

When female scientists help to organize conferences, the speaker roster tends to shift in a way that may be good for other female researchers and, arguably, for science overall, according to a study published in January (A. Casadevall and J. Handelsman mBio 5, e00846-13; 2014). The analysis, which included nearly 2,000 speakers at plenary sessions and symposia at several microbiology meetings between 2011 and 2013, showed that symposia organized by committees that included at least one woman had up to 74% more female speakers than symposia organized by all-male committees. Co-author Arturo Casadevall, a microbiologist and immunologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York, said that although more data are needed, it is possible that female conveners are more aware of the need for gender balance and might seek out female speakers.