On 12/21, FemInEM hosted a Google HangOut on Air to discuss gender representation at academic conferences in emergency medicine. This discussion was initiated after an EM FOAMite pointed out on twitter that no women were slated to speak at the 2016 Resuscitate NYC conference- a conference organized by EMCrit founder Dr. Scott Weingart.

Dr. Weingart joined FemInEM co-founders Drs. Dara Kass and Jenny Beck-Esmay as well as Dr. Simon Carley for a discussion of how this happened and what we might do to address it. Highlights of the discussion included the responsibility of mentors and leaders (both male and female) to continue to be aware of disparities in opportunity and experience and to develop strategies to consciously combat bias.

 

Highlights (timestamped for minute markers):

1:30: Dr. Weingart talks about the original tweet and explains his process and standards for selecting speakers at ResuscitateNYC

11:10: Dr. Kass and Dr. Carley give an  alternative perspective on how there may still have been biases in speaker selection

19:30: The discussants talk about how dynamics may affect women on the “speaker circuit.”

We want to thank Drs. Weingart and Carley for joining us in this discussion. Please comment or tweet @feminemtweets to share your thoughts and experiences on how prioritizing gender parity and diversity at conferences impacts learning experience and what solutions or practices academic physicians can implement to minimize bias as they mentor and develop trainees.

References

  1. Jones TM, Fanson KV, Lanfear R, Symonds MR, Higgie M. Gender differences in conference presentations: a consequence of self-selection? Peer J. 2014; 2;27.
  2. Schroeder J, Dugdale HL, Radersma R, Hinsch M, Buehler DM, Saul J, Porter L, Liker A, De Cauwer I, Johnson PJ, Santure AW, Griffin AS, Bolund E, Ross L, Webb TJ, Feulner PG, Winney I, Szulkin M, Komdeur J, Versteegh MA, Hemelrijk CK, Svensson EI, Edwards H, Karlsson M, West SA, Barrett EL, Richardson DS, van den Brink V, Wimpenny JH, Ellwood SA, Rees M, Matson KD, Charmantier A, Dos Remedios N, Schneider NA, Teplitsky C, Laurance WF, Butlin RK, Horrocks NP. Fewer invited talks by women in evolutionary biology symposia. J Evol Biol. 2013 Sep; 26(9): 2063-9.