'All male panels': when they say they can't find female experts

We have data on the number of women working in different scientific disciplines. We have legislation that promotes and requires gender parity in the formation of commissions, working groups, evaluation tribunals, etc. These data and this legislation have been applied for several years in all administrations: regional, state and European. And in the creation of all these “official” and mandatory working groups in the scientific field, in general, not much difficulty has been found to meet the required parity. Logically, there are specialties with a predominance of one of the sexes and in them it is necessary to search more intensively for representatives of the less frequent sex, but in general the equal formation of these groups has developed normally and correctly. This is what happens in the public sphere of science.

However, when these scientific groups are private in nature, such as those that depend on scientific societies, the problems in finding women for their congresses, symposiums, meetings, conferences, round tables, etc. are, according to the organizers, incommensurable. And this alleged difficulty results in the fact that scientific and technological activities are still programmed with little presence of women or, directly, without a single woman as a speaker. In recent days, we have seen advertising for various activities with this bias, which has caused protests by dozens of women on social networks.

When the organizers of events with this bias are alerted to the lack of women in their activities, their responses are that there are no expert women in the specific topic of the activity, that what they were looking for was to invite the top performers, that the women who were invited declined that invitation or, and this is one of the most common responses, that the moderator is a woman.

But what lies behind each of these events, which in English are called

manels

(from the contraction of

all male panels

, all men on the panel in Spanish) is that either there are no women in that specialty or, what is most unspeakable, that the organizers do not consider that the scientists they know are of sufficient quality. Regarding the first, we know that this is not the case, in all fields of science and technology there are women, so the reason must be the second, probably often linked to a lack of skill or desire to work when organizing said events.

The result is that these private scientific activities are considerably hindering the rise of women's recognition. To a large extent, it is the actions of scientific societies that make known and help promote research careers. And parity is not common in them. There is no parity because it is not mandatory, because the decisions are subjective and because there are groups of colleagues empowering each other (they call it

networking

) and without any internal or external control.

How long will #allmalepanels continue? We know about gender biases in AI and the danger they represent. Well, look at the list of speakers at this meeting on the changes of AI in the digital industry: 48 men, 1 woman. It is unacceptable 😡https://t.co/PFcsQGvf8f

— AMIT (@twitamit_es) April 9, 2024

The absence of women experts not only occurs in the activities of scientific societies, it is also very common in a multitude of events organized by companies, schools, foundations, etc. and much more if these events are financially remunerated, as is the case with round tables, reports for companies or conferences, among others. Activities that also do not require super-specialization.

At AMIT (Association of Women Researchers and Technologists) we try to be alert to these discriminatory acts against women, not only because we know that our level of knowledge is equal to that of our male colleagues, but because women also need social and professional rewards that give us stimulate our work and because we are totally convinced that the conclusions on any matter will always be more scientific, more useful and fairer for men and women if there is parity.

It's just that we are exaggerated with the #AllMalePanels 48/1 https://t.co/E9qAcop0Ts pic.twitter.com/BFlMo4FYAa

— Clara Grima (@ClaraGrima) April 9, 2024

Various experts and experts have analyzed how to end

manels

. There are formulas and they are quite simple to follow. The first is that the support of men is needed. If you are a man, you are dedicated to science and technology and you are invited to participate in an event, ask for the list of speakers to be sent to you. If there is no parity on that list, do not participate in the event or, better yet, propose the name of a colleague who can replace you. If the organizers do not accept it, the most decent thing would be not to attend. Also as an audience, whether we are women or men, participating in one of those events without parity causes them to perpetuate themselves, so let's think about it before going to one. And for the organizers: it is fully demonstrated that a diverse organizing group, which includes women, makes it much more likely that the result will also be more diverse. Do not invite a woman just because she is a woman, there are experts in all areas, look for them because many times the problem is only that, the inability to search. There are resources that help with this. At AMIT, for example, we launched a database of experts that has been in operation since 2018 and in which more than 3,900 scientists and technologists are registered, and there are other lists or relationships of experts that can be used.

It is just a question of will and responsibility. If all of us, or at least many of us, aim to end this form of discrimination, it will be much more difficult for it to continue happening.

Maite Paramio

is president of the Association of Women Researchers and Technologists (AMIT).