He moana pukepuke: navigating gender and ethnic inequality in early career academics’ conference attendance

Abstract

Drawing on data collected in a cross-disciplinary survey of early career academics (ECAs) in New Zealand, this article explores the factors influencing ECA conference attendance. Our conceptual framework uses conference attendance as the dependent variable and measures gender, ethnicity, family responsibilities and workload. Three key features affect conference attendance: demographic characteristics (background features and prior experiences that affect an academic's willingness and ability to attend), accessibility (constraints to attending, such as financing, family responsibilities, institutional support or teaching commitments) and purpose (the value placed on attending conferences by the individual, the institution, or the discipline). In particular, we identify differences for women, Indigenous people, and those born overseas with respect to their ability to navigate and their inclination to attend national and international conferences.… to build networks and get a profile as an international academic you need to travel. You need to be overseas because that's where all the contacts are. … that's been a real struggle for me as a NZ-based academic. The financial support from university at a general level is woefully inadequate in terms of the overseas conference and research leave. Law academic, woman, NZWithout being able to attend conferences, it's difficult to generate research and find out what the trends are within my discipline area. My experience has thus far been frustrating and for the first time in my professional career I feel that there are obstacles before me and that prejudice exists due to my gender. Education academic, woman, NZ

Better for Whom? Leveling the Injustices of International Conferences by Moving Online

“…This includes the usual outlets for networking, knowledge production and exchange such as international conferences, which are highly valued by the scientific community and other communities of practice (Oester et al, 2017). The exchanges facilitated by international conferences where participants convene in a single destination are recognized as important for professional development, wellbeing, and advancing knowledge (Fraser et al, 2017;Edelheim et al, 2018;Timperley et al, 2020). Furthermore, international conferences have become big business, supporting tourism and local communities (Biletska, 2011;Rogerson, 2015).…”

The pandemic push: can COVID-19 reinvent conferences to models rooted in sustainability, equitability and inclusion?

“…International conferences are valued as important for the development of both researchers and knowledge (Fraser et al 2017 , p. 540; Timperley et al 2020 , pp. 11–12).…”

“…The forcing hand of COVID-19 has opened an opportunity to trial online formats and to reinvent conferences as a core institution of research and practice. A global rise in community goodwill and flexibility in response to the challenges of ‘lockdown’ (Morgan 2020 ) provides an opportunity to address some of the long-term ethical quandaries that relate to both sustainability and accessibility (Ford et al 2018 ; Arend and Bruijns 2019 ; Timperley et al 2020 ) posed by traditional conference formats.…”

“…Beyond access, societies have moved to address issues of inequality faced by participants. These efforts include codes of conducts to manage in-conference interaction (Favaro et al 2016 ), mentoring (Timperley et al 2020 , p. 12), childcare provision, employing mediators to manage disputes and incentivising leadership roles and participation of historically and structurally marginalised groups including women, people of colour, those with physical and mental health disabilities, and LGBTQ + (e.g. IMCC5 2017 ).…”

Sticky care and conference travel: unpacking care as an explanatory factor for gendered academic immobility

“…Thus far in conferences research relating to inequalities (which has predominantly constructed a gender binary between men and women 1 ), studies have focused on the ways in which conferences are exclusionary at the time of the event, rather than mobility-related issues. Previous research has focused on gendered inequalities such as women opting for shorter presentation slots (Jones et al 2014), sexual harassment (Jackson 2019;Flores, 2020), women being given less prestigious invited roles or organizing roles (Eden 2016;Walters 2018), women being asked fewer and asking fewer questions (Hinsley et al 2017); intersectional conferences research has explored some of these issues in relation to gender and race or ethnicity (King et al 2018;Timperley et al, 2020). There are also publications relating specifically to the issues of caring for children at conferences, which focus on the provision of facilities-or lack thereof-for childcare and breastfeeding at conferences (Bos et al 2019;Lipton 2019).…”