Gender differences in conference presentations: A consequence of self-selection?

Abstract

Women continue to be under-represented in the sciences, with their representation declining at each progressive academic level. These differences persist despite longrunning policies to ameliorate gender inequity. We compared gender differences in exposure and visibility at an evolutionary biology conference for attendees at two different academic levels: student and post-PhD academic. Despite there being almost exactly a 1:1 ratio of women and men attending the conference, we found that when considering only those who presented talks, women spoke for far less time than men of an equivalent academic level: on average student women presented for 23% less time than student men, and academic wo..