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Notably, there are only four female scientists among the 110 living members of IAQMS, which elects new candidates by internal vote. Ten out of 102 talks during

Notably, there are only four female scientists among the 110 living members of IAQMS, which elects new candidates by internal vote. Ten out of 102 talks during the previous three conference were given by women, and only two female chemists have been awarded medals over the past decade, according to the instigators of the boycott. “These numbers do not reflect the proportion of women active in the field,” said Gagliardi, who is a professor at the University of Minnesota. “Some 50 years ago the gender distribution in Quantum Molecular Sciences may have been so skewed, but nowadays things have changed.” To illustrate the point, Krylov maintains the Women in Theoretical Chemistry web-directory, listing “more than 300 female scientists holding tenured and tenure track academic positions or equivalent positions in industry and other research establishments pursuing research in theoretical and computational chemistry, biochemistry, material science, as well as theoretical molecular/atomic physics and biophysics.” That doesn't illustrate the point unless you compare that 300 against the number of male scientists. If there are 3000+ male scientists in the field, then it's not crazy that only 5-10% of the members/talks are given by women. 300 women is undoubtedly just a drop in the bucket compared to everyone working in "theoretical and computational chemistry, biochemistry, material science, as well as theoretical molecular/atomic physics and biophysics", a ridiculously broad set of topics spanning multiple large departments at every major university (most of which have little business at a quantum chemistry conference, of course).

jellicle 12y ago
Women get ~40% of the doctorates in chemistry. The field is unbalanced, but not that unbalanced. Which is more likely: a traditionally-male field full of old white men has adapted exactly in step with the changing gender makeup of their field, OR it has not? It's not as if we've never seen this dynamic before.
- streptomycin 12y ago
  Women get ~40% of the doctorates in chemistry. The field is unbalanced, but not that unbalanced. This isn't a general chemistry conference, it's a quantum chemistry conference. I don't have any particular knowledge of the field, but I expect it's like I've seen at biology conferences. Tons of women in conferences on certain topics, but usually not the ones involving lots of math. Which is more likely: a traditionally-male field full of old white men has adapted exactly in step with the changing gender makeup of their field, OR it has not? I don't understand the question. You're asking if it's likely that the gender ratio of the field has moved in lockstep with the gender ratio of the field? Isn't that tautologically true?
Argorak 12y ago
I like the statistics based approach to this. But it answers less questions than it poses: e.g. given that statistics says that there are always outliers, how come that the outlier "a lot more women than expected by statistics on this conference" is almost never found, while the other outlier is often? (chemistry, by the way, is a field that has an equal gender ratio at start in some countries: http://www.rsc.org/Education/EiC/issues/2012May/Yellowlees-women-chemistry-students.asp http://www.rsc.org/Education/EiC/issues/2012May/Yellowlees-w...)
- streptomycin 12y ago
  But it answers less questions than it poses: e.g. given that statistics says that there are always outliers, how come that the outlier "a lot more women than expected by statistics on this conference" is almost never found, while the other outlier is often? That just poses another question: how do you know your premise is true? chemistry, by the way, is a field that has an equal gender ratio at start in some countries FWIW, this isn't a general chemistry conference, it's a rather mathy one.
  - Argorak 12y ago
    Sure, but that is neither answered by the OP nor any of the numbers that are usually thrown around. Still, some events claim that they are outliers if they have no or almost no women on the roster. My point is more that there is not sufficient hard data in the discussion to support anything. (the first sentence in my post was half in jest)

jellicle 12y ago

Women get ~40% of the doctorates in chemistry. The field is unbalanced, but not that unbalanced. Which is more likely: a traditionally-male field full of old white men has adapted exactly in step with the changing gender makeup of their field, OR it has not? It's not as if we've never seen this dynamic before.

streptomycin 12y ago
Women get ~40% of the doctorates in chemistry. The field is unbalanced, but not that unbalanced. This isn't a general chemistry conference, it's a quantum chemistry conference. I don't have any particular knowledge of the field, but I expect it's like I've seen at biology conferences. Tons of women in conferences on certain topics, but usually not the ones involving lots of math. Which is more likely: a traditionally-male field full of old white men has adapted exactly in step with the changing gender makeup of their field, OR it has not? I don't understand the question. You're asking if it's likely that the gender ratio of the field has moved in lockstep with the gender ratio of the field? Isn't that tautologically true?

Argorak 12y ago

I like the statistics based approach to this. But it answers less questions than it poses: e.g. given that statistics says that there are always outliers, how come that the outlier "a lot more women than expected by statistics on this conference" is almost never found, while the other outlier is often? (chemistry, by the way, is a field that has an equal gender ratio at start in some countries: http://www.rsc.org/Education/EiC/issues/2012May/Yellowlees-women-chemistry-students.asp http://www.rsc.org/Education/EiC/issues/2012May/Yellowlees-w...)

streptomycin 12y ago
But it answers less questions than it poses: e.g. given that statistics says that there are always outliers, how come that the outlier "a lot more women than expected by statistics on this conference" is almost never found, while the other outlier is often? That just poses another question: how do you know your premise is true? chemistry, by the way, is a field that has an equal gender ratio at start in some countries FWIW, this isn't a general chemistry conference, it's a rather mathy one.
- Argorak 12y ago
  Sure, but that is neither answered by the OP nor any of the numbers that are usually thrown around. Still, some events claim that they are outliers if they have no or almost no women on the roster. My point is more that there is not sufficient hard data in the discussion to support anything. (the first sentence in my post was half in jest)