Data from: Gender equity at scientific events

Although the proportion of women in science, and in evolutionary biology in particular, has substantially increased over the last century, women remain underrepresented in academia, especially at senior levels. Moreover, their scientific achievements do not always receive the same level of recognition as do men’s, which can be reflected in a lower relative representation of women among invited speakers at conferences or specialized courses. Using announcements sent to the EvolDir mailing list between April 2016 and July 2017, and the symposium programs of three large evolutionary biology congresses held in summer 2017, we quantified the representation of women announced as invited speakers in conferences, congress symposia and specialized courses. We compared the proportion of invited women to a baseline estimated using membership data of the associated scientific societies, and surveyed organizers to investigate their influence and that of potential gender-ratio guidelines on the proportion of invited women. We find that the average proportion of invited women is comparable (conferences), significantly lower (specialized courses) or significantly higher (congress symposia) than the current baseline (32% women). It is positively correlated to the proportion of women among the organizers, and it is on average higher for events whose organizers considered gender when choosing speakers than for those whose organizers did not. To investigate the impact of Equal Opportunity guidelines, we then collected longitudinal data on the proportion of invited women at two series of conferences, covering the 2001-2017 period. The proportion of invited women is higher when Equal Opportunity guidelines are announced. Encouraging women to sit on organizing committees of scientific events, and the establishment of visible Equal Opportunity guidelines, thus could be ways to ensure higher number of invited female speakers in the future. Our results suggest that change, if desired, requires deliberate actions.尽管过去一个世纪以来，科学界尤其是进化生物学（evolutionary biology）领域的女性占比已显著提升，但女性在学术界的代表性仍显不足，尤其在高层学术岗位中更为突出。此外，女性的科研成果往往无法获得与男性同等的认可，这一点可从会议特邀讲者、学术研讨会或专项课程讲师群体中女性的相对占比偏低得到印证。本研究依托2016年4月至2017年7月间发送至EvolDir邮件列表的公告，以及2017年夏季举办的三场大型进化生物学学术大会的研讨会议程，对会议、大会研讨会及专项课程中女性特邀讲者的占比进行了量化统计。我们将特邀女性讲者的占比与依托相关科学学会会员数据估算得到的基准值进行对比，并调研了活动组织者，以探究组织者自身因素及潜在性别比例指南对特邀女性讲者占比的影响。研究结果显示，特邀女性讲者的平均占比与当前基准值（女性占比32%）相比，在普通会议中基本持平，在专项课程中显著偏低，而在大会研讨会中则显著偏高。该占比与活动组织者群体中的女性占比呈正相关；且组织者在遴选讲者时考虑性别因素的活动，其特邀女性讲者占比的平均值显著高于未考虑性别因素的活动。为探究机会均等指南的影响，我们还收集了2001年至2017年间两场系列会议的特邀女性讲者占比的纵向数据。结果显示，公布机会均等指南的会议，其特邀女性讲者占比更高。因此，鼓励女性加入科学活动的组织委员会，并建立公开可见的机会均等指南，或可成为未来提升女性特邀讲者数量的可行路径。本研究结果表明，若期望推动性别比例的优化，则需采取审慎的主动举措。