Over the years IEEE Organisational Units (OUs) have been endeavoring to increase gender diversity of speakers in panels at IEEE Events and Conferences. This is an ongoing activity to ensure that insights are provided from different groupings of the IEEE Volunteer family. IEEE has an active Inclusion policy with an Ad hoc Committee on Diversity, Inclusion, and Professional Ethics and the Technical Activities Board’s committee on diversity and inclusion.
IEEE SSIT has made an active effort to achieve gender balance in the volunteer organising committee and balanced representation in the thematic panels at its flagship conference, IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS) over the years.
Lisa Lazareck-Asunta (2019–2020 chair of the IEEE Women in Engineering Committee) published an article in IEEE Spectrum on 23 April sharing positive news that to date four IEEE Societies are supporting the pledge promoted by IEEE WIE to support “gender-diversified panels at all IEEE meetings, conferences, and events”. These Societies include Computer, Computational Intelligence, Engineering in Medicine and Biology, and Power & Energy, with discussions ongoing with other IEEE Organisational Units.
According to Lisa Lazareck-Asunta, IEEE WIE supports the “inclusion of a diverse set of speakers – which it believes will lead to more creative, interesting, and representative panels across IEEE” with speakers selected based on “technical expertise and their ability to communicate well with audiences – regardless of gender”.
Click here to read the full article “IEEE Women in Engineering Leads a Pledge to Make Speaker Panels More Gender Balanced” by Lisa Lazareck-Asunta
Image modification of iStockphoto published with original article in IEEE Spectrum on 23 April 2021
Other relevant articles on improving diversity and inclusion include:
“Bias and Diversity in Engineering” by Tom Coughlin, IEEE*USA InSight, 29 June 2020
“How can you help Improve Diversity and Inclusion in Engineering” by Tom Coughlin, IEEE*USA InSight, 31 July 2020
“IEEE Adopts New Diversity Statement” by Kathy Pretz, IEEE Spectrum, 10 January 2020
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