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Percentages of Conference Invited Speakers Who Are Women

The CSWA recognizes that invitations to present research results at conferences are crucial to speakers' advancing their careers and providing role models for junior conference attendees. Therefore, the committee presents this list of recent astronomy conferences. Tabulated are the percentage of the invited speakers who were women (% W), the number of female speakers (# W), and the number of male speakers (# M). Latest statistics update April 9, 2012; latest table update March 16, 2013.

Histogram of the percentage of women invited speakers at astronomy conferences For the "% W" column, a histogram is at right (click for full-size display) and summary statistics are:

 
Minimum: 0.0% Mean: 21.5%
First quartile: 13.0%            Sample size: 74
Median: 20.0%
Third quartile: 30.8%
Maximum: 67.0%

For comparison with these numbers, here are some demographic data compiled by Jim Klimchuk and Joan Schmelz.

American Astronomical Society

  • Members: 25% are women
  • Full members: 18% are women
  • Full and associate members: 19% are women
  • All non-junior members: 18% are women

American Geophysical Union: 25% of members are women

International Astronomical Union: 15% of members are women (12.1% of US members; Cesarsky 2009)

Want to know how many women speakers to expect in an unbiased sample? It may be more than you think! Check this out.

What you can do (this list courtesy of Nick White, Director of Science at NASA GSFC).
  • When you are on scientific organizing committees for meetings please pay attention to diversity when selecting speakers.
  • Project Scientists sponsoring meetings or conferences should also pay attention!
  • Do not be afraid to speak up if you see unconscious bias creeping in!

The Feminist Philosophers blog has a nice discussion on the topic of female representation among plenary conference speakers with its own set of suggestions for conference and workshop organizers here.

Worthwhile advice to invited speakers can be found at this Q & A page entitled, "For gender equity at scholarly conferences".

This list of conferences is not complete. If you would like to add a conference, please carefully check the gender of all the invited speakers and send the information given in each column to the CSWA webmaster. Please remember to include only invited speakers on research topics, no popular lecturers.

Thanks for your help!


% W # W # M Conference Location Date SOC Chair
12 1 7 Binary Black Holes & Dual AGN: A Workshop in Memory of David S. De Young Tucson, AZ Nov 29, 2012 Todd Lauer
22 2 7 AAS Division of Planetary Sciences Reno, NV Oct 13, 2012 Nancy Chanover
0 0 21 Forty Years of Black Hole Thermodynamics Jerusalem, Israel Sep 3, 2012 Barak Kol
38 3 5 X-Ray Binaries - Celebrating 50 Years Since the Discovery of Sco X-1 Boston, MA Jul 10, 2012 Peter Jonker & Andrea Prestwich
43 3 4 Blackhole Feedback 2012 Hanover, NH Jul 30, 2012 [No chair specified]
45 5 6 Gemini Science Meeting 2012 San Francisco, CA Jul 17, 2012 Pauline Barmby
43 3 4 Star Formation and Gas Reservoirs in Nearby Groups and Clusters Schenectady, NY Jul 8, 2012 Rebecca Koopmann
9 1 10 European Week of Astronomy and Space Science Rome, Italy Jul 1, 2012 Roberto Buonanno & Francoise Combes
6 1 15 XMM-Newton 2012 Science Workshop: Galaxy Clusters as Giant Cosmic Laboratories Madrid, Spain May 21, 2012 Hans Boehringer
60 3 2 AAS Division on Dynamical Astronomy Mt. Hood, OR May 6, 2012 Douglas Hamilton
32 11 23 Gas Flows in Galaxies Baltimore, MD May 7, 2012 Andrew Fox & Jason Tumlinson
19 3 13 The Faint Early Sun: Paradox, Problem, or Distraction? Baltimore, MD Apr 9, 2012 Jim Kasting & David Soderblom
0 0 18 370 years of Astronomy in Utrecht Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands Apr 2, 2012 Henny Lamers & Vanna Pugliese
67 12 6 Interacting Galaxies and Binary Quasars: A Cosmic Rendezvous Trieste, Italy Apr 2, 2012 Jorge Moreno
20 2 8 Exoclimes 2012 Aspen, CO Jan 16, 2012 Nick Cowan
5 11 219th AAS Austin, TX Jan 8, 2011 Lee Anne Willson
37 7 12 The First Kepler Science Conference Moffett Field, CA Dec 5, 2011 Matt Holman
0 0 6 Fermi and Jansky: Our Evolving Understanding of AGN St Michaels, MD Nov 10, 2011 Roopesh Ojha
20 3 12 ADASS XXI Paris, France Nov 6, 2011 Carlos Gabriel
31 8 18 LOFT Science Meeting Amsterdam, The Netherlands Oct 26, 2011 Anna Watts
46 6 7 Signposts of Planets Greenbelt, MD Oct 18, 2011 [None given]
38 5 8 Fifth Hinode Science Conference: Exploring the Active Sun  Cambridge, MA Oct 11, 2011 Ed DeLuca
26 8 23 New Horizons in Time Domain Astronomy Oxford, United Kingdom Sep 19, 2011 Elizabeth Griffin & Robert Hanisch
40 6 9 Bash Symposium 2011 Austin, TX Oct 9, 2011 Joel Green
14 3 19 2011 SORCE Science Meeting: Decadal Cycles in the Sun, Sun-like Stars, and Earth's Climate System Sedona, AZ Sep 13, 2011 [None specified]
14 4 26 IAU Symposium 284: The Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies Preston, UK Sep 5, 2011 Cristina C. Popescu & Richard J. Tuffs
25 3 9 From Atoms to Stars: the Impact of Spectroscopy on Astrophysics Oxford, UK Jul 26, 2011 Stuart Sim
38 10 16 IAU Symposium 283: Planetary Nebulae - An Eye to the Future Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Spain Jul 25, 2011 Letizia Stanghellini & Arturo Manchado
6 1 16 New Horizons for High Redshifts Cambridge, UK Jul 25, 2011 [None specified]
23 11 36 From Interacting Binaries to Exoplanets: Essential Modeling Tools Tatranská Lomnica, Slovakia Jul 18, 2011 Mercedes Richards
17 5 24 Galaxy Formation: An International Conference Durham, UK Jul 18, 2011 Simon White & Carlos Frenk
33 5 10 Gordon Research Conference on Origins of Solar Systems South Hadley, MA Jul 17, 2011 Mike Meyers
12 1 7 Four Decades of Research on Massive Stars Saint-Michel-des-Saints, QC Jul 11, 2011 Nicole St-Louis
23 3 10 Fifth Coronal Loops Workshop Mallorca, Spain Jun 29, 2011 Ignacio Ugarte-Urra
19 7 29 Supernovae and their Host Galaxies Sydney, Australia Jun 20, 2011 Andy Howell & Chris Lidman
15 7 39 Very Wide Field Surveys in Light of Astro2010 Baltimore, MD Jun 13, 2011 Andrew Ptak and Massimo Robberto
4 1 24 Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy V State College, PA Jun 13, 2011 G. Jogesh Babu & Eric Feigelson
17 1 5 2011 AAS Solar Physics Division Meeting Las Cruces, NM Jun 12, 2011 David Alexander
42 8 11 Frontier Science Opportunities with the JWST Baltimore, MD Jun 6, 2011 Wendy Freedman
9 1 10 Los Alamos Space Weather Summer School Los Alamos, NM Jun 1, 2011 Josef Koller
33 5 10 Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA) 2011 London, ON May 31, 2011 Pauline Barmby
25 3 9 218th AAS Boston, MA May 23, 2011 Christine Jones
11 1 8 Science with the SOAR Telescope São Paulo, Brazil May 15, 2011 Robert Blum
18 2 9 COMPSTAR 2011 : School and Workshop, Gravitational Waves and Electromagnetic Radiation from Compact Stars Catania, Italy May 3, 2011 Marcello Baldo & Fiorella Burgio & Hans-Josef Schulze
32 10 21 Dark Matter Baltimore, MD May 2, 2011 Mario Livio
30 3 7 First ILWS/SDO Workshop: The Many Spectra of Solar Activity Squaw Valley, CA May 1, 2011 Phillip Chamberlin
17 5 22 Assembling the puzzle of the Milky way Le Grand Bernard, France Apr 17, 2011 [None specified]
15 4 22 Monsters, Inc.: Astrophysics and Cosmology with Galaxy Clusters Santa Barbara, CA Mar 14, 2011 Andrey Kravtsov, Dan Marrone, Peng Oh
40 2 3 CARMA Sceience Symposium Berkeley, CA Feb 28, 2011 Meredith Hughes
38 3 5 Transport Processes and Accretion in Young Stellar Objects Kreuth, Germany Feb 7, 2011 [None given]
5 1 19 Fast X-ray Timing and Spectroscopy at Extreme Count Rates Champéry, Switzerland Feb 7, 2011 Mariano Mendez
21 4 15 AAS 217th Meeting Seattle, WA Jan 9, 2011 Christine Jones
29 2 5 Star Formation Under Extreme Conditions: the Galactic center Besançon, France Dec 6, 2010 Mathias Schultheis
10 1 9 Multimessenger Emissions from Sources of Gravitational Waves São Sebastião, Brazil Nov 29, 2010 Cecilia Chirenti
13 4 27 The Submillimeter Universe: The CCAT View Ithaca, NY Nov 12, 2010 Gordon Stacey & Jonas Zmuidzinas
14 3 18 Massive Galaxies over Cosmic Time Tucson, AZ Nov 8, 2010 Vandana Desai & Alexandra Pope
13 2 14 Gamma-ray Bursts 2010 Annapolis, MD Nov 1, 2010 Neil Gehrels
13 2 14 Origin of Stellar Masses Tenerife, Spain Oct 18, 2010 Matthew Bate
18 3 14 WittFest: Origins and Evolution of Dust Toledo, OH Oct 10, 2010 Karl Gordon
30 3 7 42nd DPS Meeting Pasadena, CA Oct 3, 2010 Kevin Baines
20 9 35 Conditions and Impact of Star Formation: New Results with Herschel.. Zermatt, Switzerland Sep 19, 2010 [Not specified]
9 2 21 IAU Sym 275: Jets at All Scales Buenos Aires, Argentina Sep 13, 2010 Gustavo Romero
25 3 9 Cool Stars 16 Seattle, WA Aug 29, 2010 Suzanne Hawley
31 5 11 Molecules in Galaxies Oxford, UK Jul 26, 2010 Martin Bureau
12 3 23 Galaxy Clusters Garching, Germany Jul 26, 2010 Rashid Sunyaev
16 3 16 IAUS-272 Active OB Stars: Structure, Evolution, Mass Loss, and Critical Limits Paris, France Jul 19, 2010 Coralie Neiner
36 4 7 Accretion Processes in X-rays Boston, MA Jul 13, 2010 Aneta Siemiginowska & John Raymond
14 2 12 The Multi-Wavelength View of Hot, Massive Stars Liège, Belgium Jul 12, 2010 Peredur Williams
26 7 20 Asymmetric Planetary Nebulae V Windermere, UK Jun 21, 2010 Albert Zijlstra
9 2 21 Detecting Gravitational Waves with Pulsars  Leiden, The Netherlands Jun 21, 2010 [Not specified]
17 4 23 Evolution of Galaxies, Their Central Black Holes, and Their Large-Scale Environment Potsdam, Germany Jun 20, 2010 Peter Schneider & Matthias Steinmetz
14 2 12 Scientific Opportunities for New Instrumentation, Asilomar 2010 Monterey, CA Jun 7, 2010 B-G Andersson
13 2 13 216th AAS & Solar Physics Division Miami, FL May 22, 2010 Lee Hartmann & Todd Hoeksema
9 11 107 CITA@25/Bond@60. The Theory of the Universe and Everything in It Toronto, Canada May 12, 2010 Norm Murray
4 1 27 High Energy Phenomena in Relativistic Outflows II Buenos Aires, Argentina Oct 26, 2009 Gustavo E. Romero
21 4 15 215th AAS Washington, DC Jan 3, 2010 Lee Hartmann
4 1 27 Roger-Chevalier-Fest Pasadena, CA Aug 21, 2009 Alicia Soderberg
50 12 12 IAU XXVIIth GA Special Session 6 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Aug 10, 2009 Régis Courtin
0 0 15 Science with the 8-10 m Telescopes in the Era of the ELTs ... La Palma, Spain Jul 25, 2009 F. Sanchez Martinez
33 2 4 Galaxy Wars: Star Formation and Stellar Populations in Interacting Galaxies Johnson City, TN Jul 19, 2009 Beverly Smith
29 4 10 214th AAS Pasadena, CA Jun 7, 2009 Robert McConnell
40 10 15 The Search for Life in the Universe Baltimore, MD May 4, 2009 Luann Becker & Marc Postman
9 3 30 Sunyaev-Zeldovich Universe and the Future of Cluster Cosmology Waterloo, ON Apr 27, 2009 Niayesh Afshordi
33 3 6 Malaysia09:  Galaxy Evolution and Environment Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Mar 30, 2009 Meghan Gray
23 16 55 Understanding the Dark Sector Aspen, CO Jan 25, 2009 [Not specified]
21 3 11 213th AAS Long Beach, CA Jan 4, 2009 Robert McConnell
25 4 12 Hot Massive Stars:  A Lifetime of Influence Flagstaff, AZ Oct 10, 2008 Phil Massey
33 2 4 Transformational Science with ALMA: The Birth and Feedback of Massive Stars, Within and Beyond the Galaxy Charlottesville, VA Sep 25, 2008 Andrew Baker & Remy Indebetouw

Cesarsky, C. 2009, "Women in Astronomy: IAU Statistics," in Women in Astronomy and Space Science: Meeting the Challenges of an Increasingly Diverse Workforce, Proceedings from the conference held at The Inn and Conference Center University of Maryland University College, October 21—23, 2009, edited by Anne L. Kinney, Diana Khachadourian, Pamela S. Millar and Colleen N. Hartman, p. 43

This table was constructed, in part, from The International Astronomy Meetings List, which is based in the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre, operated by the National Research Council of Canada with the support of the Canadian Space Agency.

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