A Good Question Indeed: Why are There No Women at This Conference?

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"If the participants of events such as panel discussions, conferences, seminars and symposiums are all men, I ask the organizers the reason for that. I can add them to my list if you send the events with no women to the email address [email protected]."

The above call is made by Asst. Prof. Barış Gençer Baykan from İstanbul Yeditepe University. Baykan has been tracking the panels, events and conferences with no women participants since 2017.

He tells us that there were no women in 540 events held from October 1, 2017 to March 15, 2020. "It is only the ones that I came across", he adds.

Baykan now monitors gender inequality in the media, together with the Association for Supporting of Women Candidates (KA.DER). Baykan has answered the questions of bianet about his work:

How did it first occur to you to monitor the rates of men and women participants at panel discussions?

It happened spontaneously. I come across dozens of different events and invitations due to my profession as well as my fields of interest.

It got my attention that the participants were all men in most of the event (panel, congress, meeting) posters that I saw on social media. Then, I started sharing these posters on my Facebook account by grouping them in two or three.

My close circle also started to send me the meetings (to be) held without women in their own fields so that I could add them to my list. Both the number and awareness have increased as a result of that.

Did it specially catch your attention that there were an unequal number of men and women in panels?

There are already others in the world who have been drawing attention to this inequality. One of the pioneers of this is Dr. Saara Särmä, a feminist from Finland, from whom I have also got my inspiration. On http://allmalepanels.tumblr.com, she was compiling the events with only male participants. And to make my work more permanent, I also started in 2017 to collect the posters of meetings without women on my blog. (http://www.yesilgundem.net/2018/03/kadnsz-toplantlar.html).

When I saw it en masse on a single page, the gravity of the situation manifested itself much more gravely. And it also got my attention that women were mostly moderators/presenters. I also started to compile the "Meetings with a Single Women", but I cannot continue.

'Meetings without women have decreased'

What findings did you obtain while monitoring the men-women rates?

There were 540 events without any women between October 1, 2017 and March 15, 2020. This figure is - of course - limited to the ones that I could reach. Tens of thousands of meetings are probably held across Turkey in a year. There is no institution that archives them all and it is not possible for us to know the exact number.

That is why we cannot know how many meetings are held without any women. Universities and NGOs rank first as organizers of events without women participants in my list. Meetings are held without women in a wide spectrum of fields, from agriculture to economics, from politics to literature. I have recently observed that the number of meetings without any women has been on the decrease as a result of raised awareness.

'It is taken naturally that speakers are men'

Meetings without women is a problem. But - to you - what lies at the root of this problem? What are the causes of this problem?

It is an area where gender inequality is visible on an expertise level. First of all, it is not admitted that it is a problem. Everyone takes it naturally that all experts speaking in a meeting are men.

Not only does the existing inequality remain unquestioned, but it is also reproduced. If institutions do not consider gender equality in promotions or wage policies, they do not consider it in their events, either.

'Expertise networks monopolized by men'

In some panels, they put forward excuses like 'There are no women specialized in that field' or 'We called them, but they do not show up.' How do you see that?

It is - again - about not admitting the existence of this problem. Expertise networks, administrative bodies, counsels are monopolized by men. Look at the TV programs, for instance. We only see male experts.

It is not that difficult to organize meetings with equal number of men and women, but it also requires some effort. One needs to get out of the circle. It is frequently said, 'We don't look at the gender, but the expertise.' There is a gender-blind mindset. Sometimes, the organizers of a meeting take criticisms as an hostile attitude. They see it as a slander on the institution or the event. Let us be fair: Some executives and institutions do indeed lend an ear to criticisms, they ask what they can do to ensure gender equality.

Solution: Introducing quotas

What do you think the institutions should do to resolve this problem?

Leading institutions should adopt a principle of quotas in their events. Establishing norms is as important as breaking down prejudices. They should first be aware of it, then take the necessary measures and put them into practice.

Both a struggle from below and institutional measures from above... If one or two universities or municipalities say, "We will host equal number of men and women in our all events," transformation will surely gain pace.

Do you have something to add?

Meetings without Women have inspired another work. With KA.DER (the Association for Supporting of Women Candidates), we have been monitoring news channels to raise publicity and concerns about the inequality in the media. We - with a group of volunteer students from Yeditepe University - observe the gender distribution of the guests at discussion programs on prime-time. Depending on the day and the topic, there is only 1 woman guest against 9 men guests on average in these discussion programs.

(EMK/SD)