Achieving Speaker Gender Equity at the SIR Annual Scientific Meeting: The Effect of Female Session Coordinators

Abstract

Purpose: To examine the impact of targeted efforts to increase the number of female speakers at the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) by reporting gender trends for invited faculty in 2017/2018 vs 2016.Materials and Methods: Faculty rosters for the 2016, 2017, and 2018 SIR ASMs were stratified by gender to quantify female representation at plenary sessions, categorical courses, symposia, self-assessment modules, and "meet-the-expert" sessions. Keynote events, scientific abstract presentations, and award ceremonies were excluded. In 2017, the SIR Annual Meeting Committee issued requirements for coordinators to invite selected women as speakers. Session coordinators are responsible for issuing speaker invitations, and invited speakers have the option to decline.Results: Years 2017 and 2018 showed increases in female speaker representation, with women delivering 13% (89 of 687) and 14% (85 of 605) of all assigned presentations, compared with 9% in 2016 (46 of 514; P ¼ .03 and P ¼ .01, respectively). Gender diversity correlated with the gender of the session coordinator(s). When averaged over a 3-year period, female speakers constituted 7% of the speaker roster (112 of 1,504 presentations) for sessions led by an all-male coordinator team, compared with 36% (108 of 302) for sessions led by at least 1 female coordinator (P < .0001). Results of the linear regression model confirmed the effect of coordinator team gender composition (P < .0001). Conclusions:Having a woman as a session coordinator increased female speaker participation, which suggests that the inclusion of more women as coordinators is one mechanism for achieving gender balance at scientific meetings.

Disparate participation by gender of conference attendants in scientific discussions

“…Often, even in rooms that seem gender-diverse, men still dominate the conversations. Although few initiatives have increased diversity in the field of radiology, actively discussing the need for all participants to join the conversation will ultimately lead to a broader exchange of ideas among all participants [20].…”

Scientific societies fostering inclusivity through speaker diversity in annual meeting programming: a call to action

“…Studies have found that having diverse membership on a selection committee can lead to increased diversity in speaker selection (Casadevall and Handelsman, 2014;Ghatan et al, 2019). Ghatan et al found that having just one female coordinator on the Society of Interventional Radiology's Annual Meeting Committee led to almost a 30% increase in female speakers over a 3-year period (Ghatan et al, 2019).…”

“…Studies have found that having diverse membership on a selection committee can lead to increased diversity in speaker selection (Casadevall and Handelsman, 2014;Ghatan et al, 2019). Ghatan et al found that having just one female coordinator on the Society of Interventional Radiology's Annual Meeting Committee led to almost a 30% increase in female speakers over a 3-year period (Ghatan et al, 2019). A similar 2014 study found that having at least one woman on the American Society of Microbiology's convening team increased the proportion of female speakers by 72% compared with an all-male convening team (Casadevall and Handelsman, 2014).…”

If All the World’s a Stage, Then Where’s Our Microphone?

“…The proportion of women invited to speak at conferences has been correlated to the number of women among event organizers and committees and a reduction in the number of infamous "manels" in a number of reports. 24,[34][35][36][37][38] An often-cited study examined the relationship of women on a convening team with the proportion of female speakers at scientific symposia. In an analysis of 460 symposia involving 1,845 speakers at 2 large meetings sponsored by the American Society of Microbiology, the presence of at least 1 female member on the convening team was directly correlated to a greater proportion of invited female speakers and the decreased likelihood of an all-male symposium roster.…”