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.”

Make The Pledge

2,151 signatures

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?

Latest Signatures
2,151	Ms Mr Zaini Ujang	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
2,150	Mr Cheung Yew Hew
2,149	Ms Hilda Zamri
2,148	Ms azemine kukaj
2,147	Ms Shareen Abdul Ghani
2,146	Mr Charles Strickland
2,145	Ms Marla Nykyri
2,144	Mr Alizakri Alias
2,143	Mrs Nadzley Noordin
2,142	Mr Graham Kellen
2,141	Mr Thomas Clark	Church Commissioners
2,140	Mr Kevin Green	Center for Behavior & the Environment, Rare
2,139	Mr Nat Burke
2,138	Dr. Marc Ventresca	University of Oxford
2,137	Mr Anthony McDonnell	University of Oxford
2,136	Mr Paul Ellis	Paul Ellis Consulting
2,135	Mr Jeremy Webb	Freelance writer & editor
2,134	Dr. Frank Stengel	Kiel University
2,133	Dr. Vasee Moorthy	World Health Organisation
2,132	Dr. Mary Temm
2,131	Dr. markus steiner	FHI 360
2,130	Dr. Kebede Deribe	Brighton and Sussex Medical School
2,129	Dr. Joseph Lorenzo Hall	Center for Democracy & Technology
2,128	Ms Filipe Fernandes	NOAA/IOOS
2,127	Dr. Simon Kay	Wellcome Trust
2,126	Dr. Egon Willighagen	Maastricht University
2,125	Dr. Juliana Leonel	Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
2,124	Mr Jonathan Martin	Stockholm University
2,123	Mr Alex Harris	Wellcome Trust
2,122	Dr. Timothy Jinks	Wellcome Trust
2,121	Mr James Thomas
2,120	Dr. Jim Smith	Wellcome Trust
2,119	Mr Mark Henderson	Wellcome Trust
2,118	Dr. Anne-Marie Coriat	Wellcome Trust
2,117	Dr. Danil Mikhailov	Wellcome Trust
2,116	Mr Fraser Simpson
2,115	Mr Chris Bird	Wellcome Trust
2,114	Mr Dykki Settle	PATH
2,113	Mr Brian Taliesin	PATH
2,112	Mr Zuhair Zaghloul
2,111	Mr Laith Abu-Taleb	Founder Arabic HeForShe
2,110	Ms Anna Masera
2,109	Dr. Ryan McAnnally-Linz	Yale Center for Faith & Culture
2,108	Mr Tim Gee
2,107	Mr Andrew Kramer	Open Society Foundations
2,106	Dr. Pamela Lirio	Université de Montréal
2,105	Mr David Thompson	Government of Canada
2,104	Mr Dugald Topshee	Government of Canada
2,103	Dr. Scott East	UNSW Australia
2,102	Mr James Hunt
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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