Re: Bioimaging in Genoa - Open access - Great Talks, No women ?

Posted by Jeremy Adler-4 on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/Re-Bioimaging-in-Genoa-Open-access-Great-Talks-No-women-tp7584302.html

Last week I posed a simple question about a conference that was being promoted using this list.

'Alberto, in case my reading of unfamiliar names is incorrect,  could you give us the fraction of the speakers that are male.'

There has been no response - the question seems to come down to whether men make up  100% or just 96% of the speakers. Implicit  in the question is how is this possible.

The massive under representation women as speakers is not trivial, being invited to speak has considerable career advantages, its looks good on a CV, it provides good networking opportunities beyond those available to conference participants, in addition speakers costs are often met and the unstated deal is that the organizers then expect/hope that the chosen speakers will reciprocate and invite them to their conferences - a loop that further works to exclude women. That speakers often become decision makers on grant applications and publications makes this cosy arrangement even more pernicious.

So Alberto please answer a very simple but important  question.