Gender diversity at academic conferences—the case of the International Communication Association

Abstract

Gender diversity and the lack of women in leadership in academia have been issues of academic interest for decades. However, little is known about gender diversity at academic conferences as an essential aspect of academia. We investigated 86,719 contributions to International Communication Association (ICA) conferences over the past 18 years with regard to female and male authorship and how it changed following the introduction of childcare, during the global pandemic, and under female division leadership. Lastly, we analyzed divisions/interest groups, authors’ gender, and national affiliation. We found that the proportion of female authors is high in all conference years and is representative of ICA membership. We found differences in how women and men are represented across divisions, countries of author affiliation, based on the availability of childcare, and during the global pandemic. We discuss implications at societal, organizational, and individual levels.