Neurologist gives conference organisers no excuse for manels

By Michael Woodhead

4 Mar 2020

Dr Kate Ahmad

Sydney neurologist Dr Kate Ahmad is one of a group of female health professionals aiming to eliminate the ‘manel’ – male-dominated speaker line ups at medical meetings.

Dr Ahmad, a staff specialist in neurology at Royal North Shore Hospital, is one of the organisers of a new group that is creating a database of Australia and NZ-based female healthcare professional speakers so that conference organisers have no excuse for not being able to find them.

The Women Speakers in Healthcare Australia and New Zealand group’s site is encouraging women from across the spectrum of healthcare careers to join their speaker database. The site will respond to conference organisers requests to connect them with a suitable female speaker for their event.

“Our aim is for every healthcare event to have balanced gender representation. Too often, we hear that conference organisers ‘couldn’t find a woman’ to speak. Time and time again we see predominantly male speakers on conference panels, plenary sessions & keynotes,” the groups’ website notes.

“We know this is not for a lack of phenomenal women speakers. We know these women exist and we want to make sure that they are offered the same opportunities as their male colleagues to speak at healthcare events and conferences.

As well as encouraging female healthcare professionals to register as speakers, the group is also suggesting  male allies can help by sharing the database sign up form and nominating female colleagues​ for speaking events.

​​As Dr Ahmad told Women’s Agenda, it’s all too common for females to attend medical meetings and find that most of the speakers are male.

“Manels are far more common than their female equivalent the ‘wanel’ – 30% of panels versus 2% in one study, and most panels are male dominated even when they include women,” she said.

However there is little evidence of manels at the Australia and New Zealand Association of Neurologists (ANZAN) 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting that starts on 19 May in Melbourne.

Of the 55 presentations listed on the program, 23 have female speakers with several session speakers yet to be confirmed. Females also account for two of the three international guest speakers at the conference, who include Professor Claudia Sommer of the University of Würzburg, Germany and Professor Janet C. Rucker, Division Director of Neuro-ophthalmology at New York University Langone Medical Center.

There is also a Twitter account to highlight gender imbalance in conference speaker representation. According to its blurb, the #Manelwatchau account is :”Helping to end all male panels (manels), all white panels (wanels) and male dominated conferences (manferences) in Australia and worldwide.”

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