Participation of Women in the Annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conferences

In recent years, conversations about the low representation of marginalized groups in most science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields are occurring more frequently. Multiple studies reported that members of these groups are underrepresented as conference attendees, as members of conference organizing committees, and as speakers at conferences, where presenting research is important for career advancement. Planetary science has benefited from two workforce studies, and as the number of women in planetary science is increasing, their conference participation should, too. Through analyses of conference abstract author data, and to interpret the data from the workforce studies in the context of meeting participation, we studied the representation of scientists perceived to be women at the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference between 1999 and 2017. In the most recent five years, we find that the percentages of attendees with talks were nearly identical for men and women, and that, in general, women were represented as speakers in proportion to their numbers in the field of planetary science. This is in contrast to other professional conferences that draw from the same population of scientists and may be the result of the way the conference program is organized by a centralized committee rather than by separate session conveners. While representation of people perceived to be women has improved, we have limited data on members of other marginalized groups, including nonbinary scientists and scientists of color. In order to enable an understanding of challenges and barriers to success for members of all groups, especially those who identify along multiple axes, conferences should solicit self-identified gender, race, career stage, and other information. Plain Language Summary Multiple studies have shown that members of marginalized groups in most science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields are underrepresented as conference attendees, as members of conference organizing committees, and as speakers at conferences, which can be harmful to career advancement. We used author information on conference abstracts to study the representation of scientists perceived to be women at the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) between 1999 and 2017. In the most recent five years, the percentages of attendees with talks were nearly identical for men and women, and in general, women were represented as speakers in proportion to their number in the field of planetary science. This may be the result of the way the LPSC science program is organized by a centralized committee rather than by a collection of individual session conveners, which is typical of other conferences. While it is possible to study people who identify along the gender binary, we recommend that conference organizers collect demographic information in order to understand challenges and barriers to success for members of all groups, including nonbinary scientists and scientists of color.