IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0286811.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gender-based disparities and biases in science: An observational study of a virtual conference

Author

Listed:
  • Junhanlu Zhang
  • Rachel Torchet
  • Hanna Julienne

Abstract

Success in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) remains influenced by race, gender, and socioeconomic status. Here, we focus on the impact of gender on question-asking behavior during the 2021 JOBIM virtual conference (Journées Ouvertes en Biologie et Mathématiques). We gathered quantitative and qualitative data including : demographic information, question asking motivations, live observations and interviews of participants. Quantitative analyses include unprecedented figures such as the fraction of the audience identifying as LGBTQIA+ and an increased attendance of women in virtual conferences. Although parity was reached in the audience, women asked half as many questions as men. This under-representation persisted after accounting for seniority of the asker. Interviews of participants highlighted several barriers to oral expression encountered by women and gender minorities : negative reactions to their speech, discouragement to pursue a career in research, and gender discrimination/sexual harassment. Informed by the study, guidelines for conference organizers have been written. The story behind the making of this study has been highlighted in a Nature Career article.

Suggested Citation

  • Junhanlu Zhang & Rachel Torchet & Hanna Julienne, 2023. "Gender-based disparities and biases in science: An observational study of a virtual conference," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(6), pages 1-18, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0286811
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0286811
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0286811
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0286811&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0286811?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anne Gulland, 2022. "Men dominate conference Q&A sessions — including online ones," Nature, Nature, vol. 612(7941), pages 90-91, December.
    2. Jon Freeman, 2018. "LGBTQ scientists are still left out," Nature, Nature, vol. 559(7712), pages 27-28, July.
    3. Amy Hinsley & William J Sutherland & Alison Johnston, 2017. "Men ask more questions than women at a scientific conference," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(10), pages 1-14, October.
    4. Christine O’Connell & Merryn McKinnon, 2021. "Perceptions of Barriers to Career Progression for Academic Women in STEM," Societies, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-20, March.
    5. Mathias Wullum Nielsen & Jens Peter Andersen & Londa Schiebinger & Jesper W. Schneider, 2017. "One and a half million medical papers reveal a link between author gender and attention to gender and sex analysis," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 1(11), pages 791-796, November.
    6. Peter van den Besselaar & Ulf Sandström, 2017. "Vicious circles of gender bias, lower positions, and lower performance: Gender differences in scholarly productivity and impact," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(8), pages 1-16, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gita Ghiasi & Catherine Beaudry & Vincent Larivière & Carl St-Pierre & Andrea Schiffauerova & Matthew Harsh, 2021. "Who profits from the Canadian nanotechnology reward system? Implications for gender-responsible innovation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(9), pages 7937-7991, September.
    2. Evelyn Abagayle Boyd & Kelly Best Lazar, 2024. "Undergraduate Research Science Capital: Measuring capacity to engage in research," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(10), pages 1-21, October.
    3. Lin Zhang & Yuanyuan Shang & Ying Huang & Gunnar Sivertsen, 2022. "Gender differences among active reviewers: an investigation based on publons," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(1), pages 145-179, January.
    4. Thomas Buser & Huaiping Yuan, 2023. "Public Speaking Aversion," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(5), pages 2746-2760, May.
    5. Baron, Justus & Ganglmair, Bernhard & Persico, Nicola & Simcoe, Timothy & Tarantino, Emanuele, 2024. "Representation is not sufficient for selecting gender diversity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(6).
    6. Ana Jesús López & Dolores Pereira, 2021. "The Value of Transfer of Knowledge in Bridging the Gender Gap in STEM," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-15, May.
    7. Brandts, Jordi & El Baroudi, Sabrine & Huber, Stefanie J. & Rott, Christina, 2021. "Gender differences in private and public goal setting," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 222-247.
    8. Zhang, Lin & Shang, Yuanyuan & HUANG, Ying & Sivertsen, Gunnar, 2021. "Gender differences among active reviewers: an investigation based on Publons," SocArXiv 4z6w8, Center for Open Science.
    9. Mike Thelwall, 2020. "Female citation impact superiority 1996–2018 in six out of seven English‐speaking nations," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 71(8), pages 979-990, August.
    10. De Paola, Maria & Lombardo, Rosetta & Pupo, Valeria & Scoppa, Vincenzo, 2021. "Do Women Shy Away from Public Speaking? A Field Experiment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    11. Jamal El-Ouahi & Vincent Larivière, 2023. "On the lack of women researchers in the Middle East and North Africa," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(8), pages 4321-4348, August.
    12. Jennifer S. Williams & Jenna C. Stone & Stacey A. Ritz & Maureen J. MacDonald, 2023. "Letter to the editor: Laxdal (2023) “The sex gap in sports and exercise medicine research: who does research on females?”," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(7), pages 4155-4160, July.
    13. Alexander D VanHelene & Ishaani Khatri & C Beau Hilton & Sanjay Mishra & Ece D Gamsiz Uzun & Jeremy L Warner, 2024. "Inferring gender from first names: Comparing the accuracy of Genderize, Gender API, and the gender R package on authors of diverse nationality," PLOS Digital Health, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(10), pages 1-15, October.
    14. Dario Sansone & Christopher S Carpenter, 2020. "Turing’s children: Representation of sexual minorities in STEM," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-16, November.
    15. Smith, Thomas Bryan & Vacca, Raffaele & Krenz, Till & McCarty, Christopher, 2021. "Great minds think alike, or do they often differ? Research topic overlap and the formation of scientific teams," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1).
    16. Thelwall, Mike, 2018. "Do females create higher impact research? Scopus citations and Mendeley readers for articles from five countries," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 1031-1041.
    17. Aron Laxdal, 2023. "The sex gap in sports and exercise medicine research: who does research on females?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(3), pages 1987-1994, March.
    18. Bradford Barham & Jeremy Foltz & Ana Paula Melo, 2020. "Academic Engagement, Commercialization, and Scholarship: Empirical Evidence from Agricultural and Life Scientists at US Land Grant Universities," NBER Chapters, in: Economics of Research and Innovation in Agriculture, pages 179-208, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. repec:osf:osfxxx:3agxf_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. David Ardia & Keven Bluteau & Mohammad‐Abbas Meghani, 2024. "Thirty years of academic finance," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 1008-1042, July.
    21. Anna Lupon & Pablo Rodríguez-Lozano & Mireia Bartrons & Alba Anadon-Rosell & Meritxell Batalla & Susana Bernal & Andrea G Bravo & Pol Capdevila & Miguel Cañedo-Argüelles & Núria Catalán & Ana Genua-Ol, 2021. "Towards women-inclusive ecology: Representation, behavior, and perception of women at an international conference," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(12), pages 1-18, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0286811. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.