It has been on my mind to respond to this thread since I was made aware of it in late February. Not because I regard myself as any sort of sage on these matters, but because I received a phone call from someone asking me to speak out. This person did not want to give her name and or to go into specific details, but it was clear that the issue matters a great deal to her. Unfortunately, she called while I was in the midst of trying to do three other things, so I did not give our discussion all the attention it deserved and that is a matter of some regret. I hope I can make some small amends by contributing here.
First off, I make no pretence at expertise. And nor am I going to pick up on individual comments, I just want to make some general observations and suggestions.
It is good to see this discussion happening within the CCP4 community and to see so many people engage. The question of female representation in academic workshops and conferences is a live one and one where we as a community must do better. This is not simply a matter of suggesting that more women should step forward to volunteer their services. And nor would I suggest having women-only events, except perhaps as a provocative experiment to give those of us in the majority (i.e. white men) a little taste of what it feels like to be excluded.
To my mind the key here is to recognise the systemic biases and accept that we all have a responsibility to fix the system. We can’t simply leave ‘solving the problem’ to those in the under-represented groups (whether they be women, people of colour, disabled people etc). It is tiring for women (and other minoritized groups) to keep having to point out what is wrong; that burden in itself is part of the structural bias. And nor should we ignore or silence their concerns because we have not seen or experienced them ourselves.
Listening has to be a central part of the process, or ‘people talking to people’ as Atul Gawande puts it in an insightful piece about how to get people to see things from a different perspective (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/07/29/slow-ideas). This isn’t always going to be easy, but if we are really committed to including all people of talent within the scientific community and enjoy the intellectual fruits (and justice…) of diversity, we need to be prepared for what Margaret Heffernan (another of my favourites) might call ‘creative conflict’ (https://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_heffernan_dare_to_disagree?language=en).
Of course, tools and processes will also help. I agree with those who suggest that we should be proactive about seeking out women and other under-represented folks when looking for workshop tutors or conference speakers (or new people to hire). To that end, at Imperial we have introduce a new conference policy (which others are free to copy – that is in part how we constructed it ourselves - https://www.imperial.ac.uk/equality/governance/policies/conference-policy/). This sets out not only a code of conduct but also guidance on how to ensure better representation among speakers and panellists at workshops and conferences. Those of us in the majority who are accustomed to receiving invitations to speak have a crucial role to play here in testing the organisers’ commitment to diversity. I have a personal policy of not appearing on all-male panels or line-ups of speakers. I am now also trying to apply that to promote other aspects of diversity.
I could go on. The problem of gender inequality is long-standing. Progress has been made but only slowly. The Athena SWAN charter rightly has its critics in the UK, but it is starting to move the numbers (in those depts and institutions where engagement is strongest), and it has normalised the discussion. One further suggestion from the thread that I would support is inserting discussions about the issues of equality and diversity within regular academic conferences; if you have a dedicated meeting, usually only the converted show up. Better to ambush the unwary.
With best wishes,
Stephen
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Stephen Curry PhD
Assistant Provost (Equality, Diversity & Inclusion)
Professor of Structural Biology
Department of Life Sciences, Room 404A, Sir Ernst Chain Building
Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ, UK
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