Towards women-inclusive ecology : Representation, behavior, and perception of women at an international conference
Lupon, Anna ((CEAB-CSIC))
Rodríguez-Lozano, Pablo (University of California at Berkeley)
Bartrons Vilamala, Mireia (Universitat de Vic)
Anadon-Rosell, Alba (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Batalla, Meritxell (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Bernal, Susana (Centre d'Estudis Avançats de Blanes)
Bravo, Andrea G. (Institut de Ciències del Mar)
Capdevila, Pol (University of Oxford)
Cañedo-Argüelles, Miguel (Universitat de Barcelona)
Catalán, Núria (Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement)
Genua-Olmedo, Ana (University of Aveiro)
Gutiérrez-Cánovas, Cayetano (Doñana Biological Station (EBD-CSIC))
Feio, Maria João (University of Coimbra)
Lucati, Federica (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
Onandia, Gabriela (Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research)
Poblador, Sílvia (University of Antwerp)
Rotchés-Ribalta, Roser (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Sala-Bubaré, Anna (Ramon Llull University)
Sánchez-Montoya, María Mar (Complutense University of Madrid)
Sebastián, Marta (Institut de Ciències del Mar)
Zufiaurre, Aitziber (Gestión Ambiental de Navarra-Nafarroako Ingurumen Kudeaketa)
Pastor, Ada (Aarhus University)

Date:	2021
Abstract:	Conferences are ideal platforms for studying gender gaps in science because they are important cultural events that reflect barriers to women in academia. Here, we explored women's participation in ecology conferences by analyzing female representation, behavior, and personal experience at the 1st Meeting of the Iberian Society of Ecology (SIBECOL). The conference had 722 attendees, 576 contributions, and 27 scientific sessions. The gender of attendees and presenters was balanced (48/52% women/men), yet only 29% of the contributions had a woman as last author. Moreover, men presented most of the keynote talks (67%) and convened most of the sessions. Our results also showed that only 32% of the questions were asked by women, yet the number of questions raised by women increased when the speaker or the convener was a woman. Finally, the post-conference survey revealed that attendees had a good experience and did not perceive the event as a threatening context for women. Yet, differences in the responses between genders suggest that women tended to have a worse experience than their male counterparts. Although our results showed clear gender biases, most of the participants of the conference failed to detect it. Overall, we highlight the challenge of increasing women's scientific leadership, visibility and interaction in scientific conferences and we suggest several recommendations for creating inclusive meetings, thereby promoting equal opportunities for all participants.
Grants:	Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca BP/2018-00082 Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2019-111137GB-C21 Agencia Estatal de Investigación RYC-2017-22643 European Commission 749645 European Commission 839709 Agencia Estatal de Investigación IJC2018-036642-I
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Published in:	PloS one, Vol. 16, Num. 12 (December 2021) , art. e0260163, ISSN 1932-6203

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260163
PMID: 34890389

18 p, 1.3 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles