Gender inequity in speaking opportunities at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting

Abstract

Implicit and explicit biases impede the participation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematic (STEM) fields. Across career stages, attending conferences and presenting research are ways to spread scientific results, find job opportunities, and gain awards. Here, we present an analysis by gender of the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting speaking opportunities from 2014 to 2016. We find that women were invited and assigned oral presentations less often than men. However, when we control for career stage, we see similar rates between women and men and women sometimes outperform men. At the same time, women elect for poster presentations more than men. Male primary conveners allocate invited abstracts and oral presentations to women less often and below the proportion of women authors. These results highlight the need to provide equal opportunity to women in speaking roles at scientific conferences as part of the overall effort to advance women in STEM.

Fig. 1

American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting Gender Demographics. Proportion of total abstracts by career stage (a) shows male authors are a large portion of submitted abstracts. Proportion of abstracts by gender by career stage (b) shows female authors are concentrated in the student and early career stages

Fig. 2

Author submissions to American Geophysical Fall Meeting by gender and career stage. Proportion of invited authors (a) shows overall men are invited at a higher rate than women; however, when controlling for career stage, early career and mid-career women are invited at a higher rate than male colleagues in their cohort. Authors assigned oral presentations (b) shows overall men are assigned oral presentations at a higher rate than women, but when controlling for career stage there is no significant difference. Authors opting for posters (c) shows women often opt for poster presentations more often than men, both overall and at some equivalent career stages. Totals shown here are the proportion of total abstracts. An asterisk indicates a significant result at p < 0.05

Fig. 3

Primary convener allocations for American Geophysical Fall Meeting. Proportion of women across career stages invited by primary convener gender (a) shows men primary conveners invite fewer women and the proportion of women invited by primary conveners’ gender and career stage (b) shows this is true across men primary conveners’ career stages. Proportion of women across career stages assigned oral presentations by primary convener gender (c) shows men primary conveners assign oral presentations to fewer women and the proportion of women assigned oral presentations by primary conveners’ gender and career stage (d) shows this is true across men primary conveners’ career stages. An asterisk indicates a significant result at p < 0.05