Towards diversity in science - a glance at gender disparity in the Brazilian Society of Neuroscience and Behavior (SBNeC)
Gender equity is far from being achieved in most academic institutions worldwide. Women representation in scientific leadership faces multiple obstacles. Implicit bias and stereotype threat are considered important driving forces concerning gender disparities. Negative cultural stereotypes of weak s...
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Published in | Brazilian journal of medical and biological research Vol. 54; no. 10; pp. 1 - e11026 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English Portuguese |
Published |
Ribeirao Preto
Associacao Brasileira de Divulgacao Cientifica (ABDC)
01.01.2021
Revista Brasileira de Pesquisas Medicas Associação Brasileira de Divulgação Científica |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Gender equity is far from being achieved in most academic institutions worldwide. Women representation in scientific leadership faces multiple obstacles. Implicit bias and stereotype threat are considered important driving forces concerning gender disparities. Negative cultural stereotypes of weak scientific performance, unrelated to true capacity, are implicitly associated with women and other social groups, influencing, without awareness, attitudes and judgments towards them. Meetings of scientific societies are the forum in which members from all stages of scientific careers are brought together. Visibility in the scientific community stems partly from presenting research as a speaker. Here, we investigated gender disparities in the Brazilian Society of Neuroscience and Behavior (SBNeC). Across the 15 mandates (1978-2020), women occupied 30% of the directory board posts, and only twice was a woman president. We evaluated six meetings held between 2010 and 2019. During this period, the membership of women outnumbered that of men in all categories. A total of 57.50% of faculty members, representing the potential pool of speakers and chairs, were female. Compared to this expected value, female speakers across the six meetings were scarce in full conferences ([chi square] (5)=173.54, P<0.001) and low in symposia ([chi square] (5)=36.92, P<0.001). Additionally, women chaired fewer symposia ([chi square] (5)=47.83, P<0.001). Furthermore, men-chaired symposia had significantly fewer women speakers than women-chaired symposia ([chi square] (1)=56.44, P<0.001). The gender disparities observed here are similar to those in other scientific societies worldwide, urging them to lead actions to pursue gender balance and diversity. Diversity leads not only to fairness but also to higher-quality science. Key words: Gender disparity; Scientific meetings; Science societies; Neuroscience; Implicit bias; Stereotype threat |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0100-879X 1414-431X 1414-431X 1678-4510 |
DOI: | 10.1590/1414-431X2020e11026 |