Royal Society admits failings in male-dominated anniversary programme

Well-known scientist Dr Michelle Dickinson was among scientists who hit out at the Royal Society of New Zealand over a lecture series that showed poor diversity among speakers. Photo / File

New Zealand's leading body for science and the humanities has acknowledged failings over a lecture series line-up heavily slated for its poor showing of diversity.

As part of its 150th anniversary programme, the Royal Society of New Zealand asked its branches to choose a speaker on a future-focused topic in their region.

When the final selection, revealed last month, showed just three female speakers out of 15 at 10 events, the society met a strong backlash from many leading scientists.

In a letter to the society, University of Auckland physicist Associate Professor Nicola Gaston, author of the book Why Science is Sexist, said it was "unfathomable" how it was thought reasonable to promote the collection of speakers in a way that emphasised their lack of diversity.

Kate Hannah, executive manager of University of Auckland-based Te Punaha Matatini, who recently wrote a paper on the exclusion of women in chronicling the history of New Zealand science, responded with an opinion piece for The Spinoff website titled: "Is this pale, male, stale Royal Society line-up some kind of historical re-enactment?"

Nanogirl Labs, founded by prominent scientist and Weekend Herald columnist Dr Michelle Dickinson, published an open letter calling on the society to consider reviewing its decision, and many other well-known figures from the science community hit out at the move on Twitter.

The society last night responded with its own open letter from its president, Emeritus Professor Richard Bedford, who acknowledged the issue had "caused many to question our commitment to diversity".

Bedford said the society had not specifically asked each branch to consider diversity in making their selections and admitted its processes "failed us in this instance".

The society had now decided to form a new group to specifically address gender issues as part of its work around diversity, he said, and had refined the eligibility criteria of many of its selection processes.

It would be publishing data showing the make-up of its panels, nominees and recipients and updating its diversity plan.

The society had also contributed to a group that had considered adopting a UK's Athena Swan Charter to promote women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine, but decided not to as a national diversity approach needed be centred on the Treaty of Waitangi.

"Nevertheless, the society will continue to actively engage with organisations with similar goals to address diversity and equity issues."

Hannah told the Herald that although it was good to see feedback, it remained "disappointing" the society didn't prioritise guidelines for the regions about diversity.

"Going back to the branches for reselection, plus some firm guidelines for future processes would have been a great call," she said.

"Those guidelines should be around gender, ethnicity, and career stage, as well as including types of employment."

A publicly available sponsorship and event policy would do much to prevent similar situations in the future, she said.

Dickinson described the episode as "an embarrassment" and said the line-up should be "remedied now" and practices put in place so it didn't happen again.

"They should have responded far more quickly than they did - acknowledged the failure, and moved immediately to engage the branches and correct the situation."

New Zealand Association of Scientists president Associate Professor Craig Stevens said the society should add more speakers to resolve the issue.

"I think audience will embrace this and support having more science, from a range of speakers that reflect who is doing the science."

Making our leading women scientists more visible would "benefit everyone", he said.

"We are now in the era when science is open to all with the aptitude and energy. There are enough challenges trying to do the thinking without having attitudes past their use-by date as barriers."

Diversity has been an increasingly prominent issue in science - something illustrated by the 2016 film Hidden Figures - and commentators have pointed to continued poor representation of women and ethnic diversity at higher levels of the sector.

Last year, the Royal Society announced women comprised more than half of its newest inductees, but, with the rate lifting only from 10.5 per cent to 12.5 per cent, added the new criteria wasn't a case of "problem solved".