Gender gap in prestigious academic meetings and leaderships – a survey of the 9th ibro world congress of neuroscience

Gender equity has been a significant concern among scientific societies. Here we analyzed the gender proportions of speakers at the 9th IBRO World Congress of Neuroscience (2015) held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). The survey was based on the online scientific programme. Gender was defined as a binary concept. Photos and pronouns were searched on personal and/or institutional websites. Plenary lectures had the lowest percentage of women - only 2 out of 10 (20%). Gender disparity was also observed in contributed talks. For symposia and mini-symposia speakers, 25 out of 80 (31,3%) and 17 out of 59 (28,8%) were women, respectively. Additionally, chairs were predominantly men; women chaired 8 of the 20 symposia (40%) and 6 of the 16 mini-symposia (37,5%). Besides, the gender imbalance of speakers was much worse in men-chaired ones. When the 9th Congress was held (2015), a gender gap was present among IBRO’s Officers. Until 2020, no woman had been President, only 3 had been Secretary General (17.6%) and none had been Treasurer. The present gender disparities in meetings and directory boards replicate surveys from other neuroscience events and societies meetings. Auspiciously, the online programme of the present 11th IBRO World Congress of Neuroscience (2023) depicts an equal distribution of women and men (50%) lecturers, certainly reflecting the result of recent advances in pursuing gender equity. Importantly, the current IBRO`s officers in the Presidency and Secretary General posts are women. IBRO`s leading initiative of gender equity in invited lectures has the potential to act as a model and spread to several societies from different countries joining the 11th IBRO World Congress. Moreover, it is important to continuously collect data for bias in gender, race and other minoritized groups to guide future actions targeting equity, diversity, and inclusion in the neuroscience community. Declaration of Interest Statement: None