Conference attendance is fundamental for a successful career in astronomy. However, many factors limit such attendance in ways that can disproportionately affect women and minorities more. In this white paper, we present the results of a survey sent to 164 research staff at the Space Telescope Science Institute to determine what reasons motivate their attendance at science conferences and what aspects prevent researchers from attending them. The information collected through this survey was used to identify trends both in aggregate form and split by gender and if respondents had dependents. We propose a set of recommendations and best practices formulated by analyzing these trends. If consistently adopted, these recommendations will achieve greater diversity in astronomy through the broadening of conference participation.
@article{arxiv.1909.10996,
title = {Enhancing Conference Participation to Bridge the Diversity Gap},
author = {Laura Prichard and Cristina Oliveira and Alessandra Aloisi and Julia Roman-Duval and Svea Hernandez and Camilla Pacifici and Ivelina Momcheva and STScI Women in Astronomy Forum},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1909.10996},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
10 pages, 3 figures, Astro2020 State of the Profession White Paper