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Should conferences require that half of presenters be women?
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In recent years, the proportion of women speakers at certain infectious disease conferences has increased, according to experts. For the first time, more women presented at this year’s CROI than men. But panels and presentations at meetings are still often dominated by men. Infectious Disease News asked William G. Powderly, MD, FIDSA, the Dr. J. William Campbell Professor of Medicine and the Larry J. Shapiro Director of the Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis, and co-director of the division of infectious diseases at the Washington University School of Medicine, about the importance of equal gender representation at conferences and whether conferences should require an even balance of women and men speakers.
Historically, women and minorities have been underrepresented at scientific conferences despite their growing numbers in science. One of the reasons for that is because meetings are organized by people in leadership positions, and there is a tendency for them to use their own individual networks to invite speakers to the meetings. If we are going to try to highlight the breadth of scientific activity, we cannot assume that it will be done without an active process. In fact, there are a lot of data that show very clearly if change is left to chance — then it will not happen. It must be actively encouraged.
One way to achieve equal gender representation at meetings is to ensure that the organizing committee is adequately representative and should have at least a goal of having an equal gender balance. The second is to make sure that when sessions are being planned, there is equal representation of women in the moderation or coordination of those sessions, and then to have an overall goal for the meeting that 50% of the presenters will be women.
It is possible that there will be a session with more men than women speakers, but committees should manage the meeting so that women and men are represented overall. That will have a couple of consequences. It will provide younger people and people who are good scientists, but perhaps not as well-known in the field, an opportunity to be seen. This is key for expanding networks. The promotion of these individuals is also important because many institutions regard invitations to speak at international and national meetings as a metric of how respected your work is. It is a fundamental goal.
In terms of who will enforce this requirement, most meetings are sponsored by somebody. In the case of IDWeek, for example, the meeting is sponsored by IDSA, SHEA, PIDS and HIVMA. Ultimately, the responsibility lies with those organizations to select the organizing committee. They should be selecting a committee with a view to ensure that the meeting is scientifically representative, it is gender and minority representative and, at the leadership level, that people share the goals and objectives of the societies. If that is carried out, then this goal will be achieved.
It is easy to start with gender, but this concept of inclusion and fostering people ultimately also needs to be directed toward minorities who have been equally excluded from these opportunities.
Disclosure: Powderly reports no relevant financial disclosures.