Programme

Speaker policy for gender balance

Unconscious bias have proven to be a heavy weight we all carry with us and which will slow achieving gender balance, since above all, it affects everybody, independently of gender, education, etc.

Therefore, we have put forward a Statement for gender balance at ECM31 to avoid this bias by a basic observation of the ECM community. We have analysed the composition of the community in the last ECM in order to deliver unbiased ratios that should be respected.

We have established the 30% ratio as a bare minimum to be respected.

More specifically, the following ratios are expected:

• Keynotes - 30 % women. Since the number of plenaries is small, this ratio will be more flexible.
• MS (5 people): At least 2 should be women. Given that not all fields have the same representation, those finding the ratio difficult to respect, should write a report of names considered and send it to the organizing committee for approval.

This ratio should also be looked for in the plenaries and chairs, though with more flexibility, given the fact that the sample is smaller.

Of course these are guidelines to help fight gender bias, but a big effort is needed to break and accelerate the societal changes that give rise to unconscious biases: this numbers should be the bare minimum to respect.