Trends in Cell Biology
Volume 25, Issue 8, August 2015, Pages 437-439
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Scientific Life
Invisible woman?

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The number of invited women speakers at scientific meetings is much less than their proportion in a field. This means that women have fewer venues to present their research, less opportunity to increase their professional network, and smaller chances of promotion and financial support. The paucity of women speakers also sends a message to aspiring young female researchers that there is no room for them at the top. So how can we help?

Section snippets

How organizers can create a gender-balanced meeting

A meeting organizer should start with the aim that the percentage of keynote or invited women speakers is at least proportional to the percentage of women in the field, including those in training. Fortunately, that aim can be realized: the women are there, as are the resources to find them (Box 1).

An excellent resource that I know well is the list at the Women in Cell Biology (WICB) Speaker Referral website, which contains an extensive list of speakers who have been vetted by the American

Multiple choice for invitee's response: Yes, No, or No but I recommend…

Having identified a woman scientist as the ideal speaker, reviewer, or awardee, one may now face two obstacles. First, in the circumscribed world that we inhabit it is not uncommon to hear ‘No thanks, I am overcommitted.’ A well-known woman scientist who is a leader in the field may receive so many invitations that she has to say no to some invitations to continue her research, to fulfill her teaching or clinical obligations, and to maintain her responsibilities to family.

Does one give up and

The benefits of getting past gender bias

Meeting organizers may not think they are biased and indeed probably have no explicit bias, but the outcome suggests that implicit bias is nonetheless at play. It is natural for organizers to ‘round up the usual suspects’. The presence of only one woman as a program convener significantly decreased the number of male-only sessions and increased the number of sessions that included women by greater than 70% in meetings sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology [3]. Furthermore, when a

Acknowledgments

The members of the WICB committee of the ASCB and the ASCB staff have been essential in the development of the WICB Speaker Referral list. The author thanks Robert J. Majeska, City College of New York, Victor Schuster, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Virginia Valian, Hunter College and the City University of New York, Rebecca Heald, University of California, Berkeley, and WICB members for lively discussions and suggestions on this article.

References (3)

  • S.K. Masur

    Women in cell biology: a seat at the table and a place at the podium

    Mol. Biol. Cell

    (2013)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

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