[论文解读] The Role of Gender in Asking Questions at Cool Stars 18 and 19

Sarah J. Schmidt, Stephanie T. Douglas+5 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Apr 18, 2017

Climate Change Communication and Perception参考文献 4被引用 5

一句话总结

本研究调查了在Cool Stars 18和19会议中提问行为的性别差异，发现尽管女性参会者占比为63–69%，但男性却提出了75–79%的提问，表明女性在问答环节中存在系统性代表性不足。作者建议实施面向会议主席的行动导向培训、采用更具包容性的主持方式，并更广泛地收集关于交叉身份（如种族、能力、性取向等）的数据，以提升学术会议参与中的公平性。

ABSTRACT

We examine the gender balance of the 18th and 19th meetings of the Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stellar Systems and the Sun (CS18 and CS19). The percent of female attendees at both meetings (31% at CS18 and 37% at CS19) was higher than the percent of women in the American Astronomical Society (25%) and the International Astronomical Union (18%). The representation of women in Cool Stars as SOC members, invited speakers, and contributed speakers was similar to or exceeded the percent of women attending the meetings. We requested that conference attendees assist in a project to collect data on the gender of astronomers asking questions after talks. Using this data, we found that men were over-represented (and women were under-represented) in the question sessions after each talk. Men asked 79% of the questions at CS18 and 75% of the questions at CS19, but were 69% and 63% of the attendees respectively. Contrary to findings from previous conferences, we did not find that the gender balance of questions was strongly affected by the session chair gender, the speaker gender, or the length of the question period. We also found that female and male speakers were asked a comparable number of questions after each talk. The contrast of these results from previous incarnations of the gender questions survey indicate that more data would be useful in understanding the factors that contribute to the gender balance of question askers. We include a preliminary set of recommendations based on this and other work on related topics, but also advocate for additional research on the demographics of conference participants. Additional data on the intersection of gender with race, seniority, sexual orientation, ability and other marginalized identities is necessary to fully address the role of gender in asking questions at conferences.

研究动机与目标

• 调查Cool Stars 18和19会议中科学报告问答环节的性别代表性情况。
• 评估主持人或演讲者性别、提问时间长度或会议结构是否影响问答环节中的性别平衡。
• 识别可操作的策略，以改善会议参与中的性别公平性，特别是在提问行为方面。
• 倡导在学术会议人员构成中扩大对交叉身份（如种族、能力、性取向等）数据的收集。

提出的方法

• 收集了Cool Stars 18和19会议中每位报告后提问者性别的观察数据。
• 将提问者的性别分布与整体参会者人口统计及演讲者代表性进行对比。
• 分析了主持人性别、演讲者性别以及提问时间长度等潜在影响因素。
• 使用统计比较方法评估男性和女性在问答环节中的过度或不足代表性。
• 制定了一套基于证据的建议，面向会议主席、提问者及会议组织者。
• 建议在会议开场时加入关注公平的宣传信息和行为准则公告。

实验结果

研究问题

• RQ1 Cool Stars 18和19会议中，提问者的性别分布与参会者相比如何？
• RQ2 会议主持人和演讲者的性别如何影响提问者的性别平衡？
• RQ3 提问时间长度是否影响女性在问答环节中的代表性？
• RQ4 对男性和女性演讲者提问的数量是否存在差异？
• RQ5 有哪些机构和行为干预措施可以改善会议提问中的性别公平性？

主要发现

• 在Cool Stars 18会议中，男性提出了79%的提问；在Cool Stars 19会议中，男性提出了75%的提问，尽管他们分别仅占参会者的69%和63%。
• 女性在提问中的代表性显著不足，其参与度低于其在观众中的占比。
• 研究未发现主持人或演讲者性别对提问者性别平衡有显著影响。
• 提问时间长度对女性在问答环节中的代表性无显著影响。
• 女性和男性演讲者在报告后获得的提问数量相当，表明在此指标上，演讲者性别未影响观众参与度。
• 研究结果与以往研究存在差异，提示会议问答中的性别动态可能受语境特定因素影响，需进一步研究。