NZ society admits talk line-up fail

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 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 reenactment?”

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 on the make-up of its panels and updating its diversity plan.