Analysis of Women Conference Leadership Levels: Convener Impacts on the Science Program Committee

Conferences have increasingly come under a spotlight for inclusion and representation of marginalized groups. Here, we retrospectively analyzed perceived binary gender within the internal structure and dynamics of scientific leadership at the Chapman conference series, spanning a period from 2007 to 2019. Chapman conferences are small, focused meetings, under the umbrella of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), in the Earth and space sciences. They follow a centralized, two-leveled scientific leadership model, starting at conference inception by the organizing conveners and their selection of an invited science program committee (SPC). Our main findings were: (1) On average, women in leadership were underrepresented in relation to the total AGU membership number of women. (2) On average, if women were among conveners, the number of women in the SPC increased, reaching equity comparable to AGU membership of women. (3) On average, the women convener ratio was less equitable than the women SPC ratio. In conclusion, targeted efforts for equity–especially at the convener level of the centralized conference model–are needed, as increased representation of women at the convener level improved representation of women at the SPC. Further equity for other marginalized groups such as non-binary gender and other identities can be improved with broader demographic data collection and analysis.