Astronomy
This is a cross-post from Rob Simpson's blog Orbiting Frog.
We?re running the fifth .Astronomy conference later this year in Boston. .Astronomy is a small (and awesome) conference for astronomers, where you must apply to participate. Although the tone is relaxed, spaces at the event are in short supply (there are only 50 places). You don?t have to talk at .Astronomy, and there are only a few speaking slots, but it?s a pretty friendly crowd and you can talk about a wide variety of things. So why did only 2 women submit an abstract (out of 27 female applicants) versus 30 men (out of 65)?
We would like to create a broad group of speakers but it?s hard to select talks that don?t exist. Did we inadvertently create a bias toward male speakers by soliciting abstracts on the sign-up form? If so, that?s a worry because it?s how a lot of conferences do this.
To be clear: on our simple conference registration form, almost 50% of men submitted an abstract, but only 7% of women. Holy moly.
There has been a great deal written about the fact that women lack self-esteem, relative to men. This explains some of the gender gap in pay, promotions and even published op-eds. This isn?t news, really. In fact the 7% and 50% figures above are eerily close to the percentages for each gender who negotiate starting pay after getting an MBA ? and that study is more than 10 years old!
What is news to me is that we committed the same error at a progressive conference in 2013. Does this mean that conference registration forms like the one used for .Astronomy are an example of unwitting bias against women in astronomy ? and who knows: science, academia, conferences in general?
I?d be interested to know how this plays out at other conferences and events. Do the UK National Astronomy Meetings see a similar gender gap? Do AAS Meetings? Does anyone else have anecdotal examples of similar or contradictory things happening?
I realise that there are women with plenty of self-confidence ? and also men who lack it. I also realise that self-confidence does not correlate with academic ability and so perhaps we need a better system for selecting people for talks, promotions or jobs. I?m not proposing any solutions here ? that would be extremely self-confident of me. What I do know is that whatever system would improve the situation, it will also be important for the women of academia to boldly go where statistically fewer women have gone before: and submit more abstracts.
As for .Astronomy: if you?re coming to the meeting in September and you?re a woman who didn?t submit an abstract (there are many of you!) then feel free to email one to me now. The SOC are still picking a range of speakers and talks, so we?d love to hear from you.
- Gender Representation At A Specialized Astronomy Conference
Today's guest blogger is Kyle Willett. Kyle is a postdoc in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota. He works on galaxy morphology and their relation to active black holes, particularly as part of the Galaxy Zoo project....
- Cogitations On Gender At The "dot Astro" Conference
Today's guest post is by Brooke Simmons, an astronomy postdoc at Oxford and the Henry Skynner Junior Research Fellow at Balliol College. Brooke researches the co-evolution of black holes and galaxies and is actively involved in citizen science within...
- Report: Gender In Aas Talks
Cross-posted from University of Washington Astronomy PhD Candidate Jim Davenport's blog: Today I'm proud to announce that my AAS 223 Hack Day project is finally finished! Our "paper" (really an informal report) on the study of gender in AAS talks...
- Invited Speakers
Giving invited talks is an important part of any scientist?s career. It is an opportunity to sell his or her science topic in a long format and to a large audience. Yet, it seems that the same small subset of (mostly older male) scientists is asked to...
- 215th Aas: Meg Urry
The AAS Meeting was so big, I've asked a few people to help me summarize their thoughts and impressions of the meeting. I'll be posting them over the next days and weeks. Just to prove that I'm not the only one who felt overwhelmed by the...
Astronomy
Guest Post: Men, Women and Self-Promotion in Astronomy
This is a cross-post from Rob Simpson's blog Orbiting Frog.
We?re running the fifth .Astronomy conference later this year in Boston. .Astronomy is a small (and awesome) conference for astronomers, where you must apply to participate. Although the tone is relaxed, spaces at the event are in short supply (there are only 50 places). You don?t have to talk at .Astronomy, and there are only a few speaking slots, but it?s a pretty friendly crowd and you can talk about a wide variety of things. So why did only 2 women submit an abstract (out of 27 female applicants) versus 30 men (out of 65)?
We would like to create a broad group of speakers but it?s hard to select talks that don?t exist. Did we inadvertently create a bias toward male speakers by soliciting abstracts on the sign-up form? If so, that?s a worry because it?s how a lot of conferences do this.
To be clear: on our simple conference registration form, almost 50% of men submitted an abstract, but only 7% of women. Holy moly.
There has been a great deal written about the fact that women lack self-esteem, relative to men. This explains some of the gender gap in pay, promotions and even published op-eds. This isn?t news, really. In fact the 7% and 50% figures above are eerily close to the percentages for each gender who negotiate starting pay after getting an MBA ? and that study is more than 10 years old!
What is news to me is that we committed the same error at a progressive conference in 2013. Does this mean that conference registration forms like the one used for .Astronomy are an example of unwitting bias against women in astronomy ? and who knows: science, academia, conferences in general?
I?d be interested to know how this plays out at other conferences and events. Do the UK National Astronomy Meetings see a similar gender gap? Do AAS Meetings? Does anyone else have anecdotal examples of similar or contradictory things happening?
I realise that there are women with plenty of self-confidence ? and also men who lack it. I also realise that self-confidence does not correlate with academic ability and so perhaps we need a better system for selecting people for talks, promotions or jobs. I?m not proposing any solutions here ? that would be extremely self-confident of me. What I do know is that whatever system would improve the situation, it will also be important for the women of academia to boldly go where statistically fewer women have gone before: and submit more abstracts.
As for .Astronomy: if you?re coming to the meeting in September and you?re a woman who didn?t submit an abstract (there are many of you!) then feel free to email one to me now. The SOC are still picking a range of speakers and talks, so we?d love to hear from you.
- Gender Representation At A Specialized Astronomy Conference
Today's guest blogger is Kyle Willett. Kyle is a postdoc in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota. He works on galaxy morphology and their relation to active black holes, particularly as part of the Galaxy Zoo project....
- Cogitations On Gender At The "dot Astro" Conference
Today's guest post is by Brooke Simmons, an astronomy postdoc at Oxford and the Henry Skynner Junior Research Fellow at Balliol College. Brooke researches the co-evolution of black holes and galaxies and is actively involved in citizen science within...
- Report: Gender In Aas Talks
Cross-posted from University of Washington Astronomy PhD Candidate Jim Davenport's blog: Today I'm proud to announce that my AAS 223 Hack Day project is finally finished! Our "paper" (really an informal report) on the study of gender in AAS talks...
- Invited Speakers
Giving invited talks is an important part of any scientist?s career. It is an opportunity to sell his or her science topic in a long format and to a large audience. Yet, it seems that the same small subset of (mostly older male) scientists is asked to...
- 215th Aas: Meg Urry
The AAS Meeting was so big, I've asked a few people to help me summarize their thoughts and impressions of the meeting. I'll be posting them over the next days and weeks. Just to prove that I'm not the only one who felt overwhelmed by the...