The Pledge – I will not be part of male-only panels

The pledge

“At a public conference I won’t serve on a panel of two people or more unless there is at least one woman on the panel, not including the Chair.”

Frequently asked questions

What happens if we have tried to find women but there is nobody available?

Try harder. I’ll be happy to suggest some women who would be much better than me. You may need to organise your conference a little earlier to be sure of getting women on your panels.

What happens if a woman drops out and we end up with a men-only panel?

There are many brilliant women – please find someone else to take her place.

What if a woman drops out at very short notice?

I get it: shit happens. You could cover yourself by planning to have two women on the panel (gosh!). But if I’ve agreed to be on a panel I won’t let you down if something genuinely unforseen happens. (But if this means a male-only panel, you’ll have to forgive me in advance for the fact that I am going to tease you about this in the meeting.)

Organising conferences is hard enough already?

The Gendered Conference Campaign has some great advice for conference organisers.

What else can we do?

• Keep drawing attention to the issue. If you are at a conference with male-only panels, call it out.
• Audit your events and keep track of the trends
• Be mindful about promoting women through social media

Who has taken the pledge?

2,414	Mr Pieter Hemels
2,413	Ms Reina Boels
2,412	Mr Gaston Amons
2,411	Mr Yann LeMoel	Living Labs
2,410	Dr. Arthurine Zakama	UCSF
2,409	Ms Stéphanie Beauregard	Delegatus legal services
2,408	Dr. Christian Toennesen	Carnstone Partners Ltd
2,407	Mr Michael Kobori	Starbucks Coffee Company
2,406	Dr. Kristina Adams Waldorf	University of Washington
2,405	Dr. Lesley Barron
2,404	Ms Michal Elovitz	Womxns health collaborative
2,403	Dr. Geeta Swamy	Duke university
2,402	Dr. Itir Erhart	Istanbul Bilgi University
2,401	Mr Douglas MacDonald
2,400	Dr. Derman Başaran
2,399	Dr. Anja Eggert	Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology
2,398	Ms Matias Dutto
2,397	Dr. Valerie Haugen	RTI International
2,396	Miss Marije Schasfoort
2,395	Mr Maarten Derksen
2,394	Mr Ravi Kiran
2,393	Dr. Bhavik Patel	University of Brighton
2,392	Mr Matt Kern	Hendrix College
2,391	Mr Neeraj Jain	PATH India
2,390	Ms Kaat De Corte
2,389	Ms Pooja Shahani
2,388	Dr. Lakshmana Swamy
2,387	Ms Jennie Roloff Rothman	Kanda University of International Studies
2,386	Dr. Maximilian Crus
2,385	Dr. Robin Ulep	University of Virginia
2,384	Dr. Wesley Kerr	UCLA
2,383	Dr. Kathleen Liu	UCSF
2,382	Dr. Christopher Chiu	The Curbsiders
2,381	Dr. Tony Cunningham	BIDMC and HMS
2,380	Dr. Frank Cacace
2,379	Dr. Mohit Harsh	Washington University in St. Louis Dept of Internal Medicine
2,378	Dr. Kushal Vaishnani
2,377	Dr. Geoffrey Stetson	UCSF
2,376	Dr. Charlie Wray	UCSF
2,375	Dr. Ben Ferguson	University of New Mexico
2,374	Dr. sharon stein
2,373	Mr Christopher Calabia	Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
2,372	Ms Arundhati Ghosh	Executive Director, India Foundation for the Arts
2,371	Mr Luis Vásquez	Universidad Nacional de Colombia
2,370	Ms Meera Shenoy
2,369	Mr Brooke Patterson	Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
2,368	Ms Ariel Delaney
2,367	Mr Prabir Borooah	Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
2,366	Mr Matthew Bohan	Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
2,365	Ms Jamie Zimmerman	Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
<< < > >>

Another list of people who have made the same commitment: www.manpanels.org

 Coverage and Inspiration

Last year, six leading Washington think tanks presented more than 150 events on the Middle East that included not a single woman speaker. Fewer than one-quarter of all the speakers at the 232 events at those think tanks recorded in our newly compiled data-set were women.

“The mysterious absence of women from Middle East policy debates“ – Tamara Cofman Wittes and Marc Lynch, Washington Post Money Cage, January 20th 2015

Because I believe you cannot conduct constructive discourse on international issues without the participation of women, I recently decided not to speak on any panels that did not include women. I’m not writing this to seek a pat on the back. But because any discussion that does not include women’s perspectives or that reflexively excludes or fails to seek out the women who are leaders in their fields in virtually any and every subject on this agenda will be deeply inadequate and will only compound distortions of gender bias that exist because of our long history of systematic exclusion of women’s views. I’d much rather participate in discussions where the organizers actually demonstrate that they are committed to producing the best possible work product.

“Still waiting for Davos Woman” by David Rothkopf, FP Magazine, January 22nd, 2015

I often attend panels or discussions dominated by men, especially in technology. This is problematic since it sends the signal that only men have the expertise in their given field. To their credit, some men are initiating change.

“Three Ways To Change The Ratio of Women Receiving VC“ – Leah Eichler, Inc Website, November 10th 2014

There is no topic that cannot be discussed by women. There is no circumstance that would prevent one from inviting women. There is simply no rational excuse for excluding women. And, if you are invited to join a panel with no women, you must conclude it is being organized by fools.

“Why I will no longer speak on all-male panels“ – Scott Gilmore, Macleans, October 4th, 2014