Resources/Diversity Committee
Gender Diversity in iGEM
iGEM is committed to being fully inclusive to all members of its community. Over the last several years, iGEM has recommended that teams should be gender-balanced, having approximately as many women as men on a team. As the picture of 2016 Stanford-Brown Team shows on the right, many teams have taken this recommendation seriously and have helped to increase our gender diversity throughout the competition.
While this was a great step forward, we at iGEM HQ realized that promoting gender-balanced teams was only one step towards gender diversity and inclusion in iGEM. With the help of our community, we formed the Diversity Committee to help inform and advise us on ways we could improve diversity in our community.
Gender Statistics for iGEM 2017
The iGEM Diversity Committee would love for iGEM to be a place where people of all genders are equally represented. The Paris Bettencourt iGEM team of 2013 performed an extensive study of gender diversity within the iGEM competition. This study found that women were under-represented at all levels of iGEM, with lower levels of representation for more senior categories of participants.
Figure 1: The gender statistics for iGEM 2013, compiled by the Paris-Bettencourt 2013 team. Figure provided by Aude Bernheim.
In 2017, gender data was collected from new iGEM participants. We are really pleased to see that gender balance has improved!
iGEM students have really increased their gender diversity, and now nearly 50% of iGEM students are female or non-binary. Well done! Students, we will need your help to continue to improve gender diversity among iGEM PIs, instructors, and advisors as you advance in your careers.
Improving gender diversity among iGEM judges has been a major focus over the past few years, and we are approaching 50% female/non-binary judges despite the gender imbalance among PIs, instructors, and advisors. We will continue to work to improve the gender balance in judging in future years.
We encourage the iGEM community to continue to work for increased gender diversity within iGEM, and we will report back on the progress again next year!
Figure 2: The gender statistics for iGEM 2017. The “male” and “female” groups include both cisgender and transgender individuals. In 2017, individuals were only able to select one response; we’ve since realized that this was a flaw in our survey. In the future, we will allow respondents to select multiple responses for increased accuracy.
Take Action!
What can iGEMers do RIGHT NOW to improve gender diversity within iGEM?
You can do a lot to work on gender balance in iGEM, both for this year and for future years. Ask your team instructors to add female and non-binary instructors/PIs to the team. Encourage female/non-binary team instructors to apply to be iGEM judges. Make sure that female/non-binary students know to sign up for next year's team.
Within student teams, make sure that team roles are filled by a diverse group of team members. We recommend that team members should choose their roles based on what they are interested to learn during the summer, rather than their current skill level. Try to make sure that team roles are equitably assigned to team members in a gender-diverse manner.
With your help, we can continue to see iGEM gender diversity increase in the coming years!
Committee Role
The iGEM Diversity Committee is responsible for promoting and improving the accessibility to iGEM for women, members of the LGBTQ community, and other members that represent our diverse community.
Some of our efforts include:
- Working with iGEM teams to help improve gender-sensitive issues in their projects
- Designating gender-neutral restrooms at the iGEM Giant Jamboree
- Increasing the percentage of female and LGBTQ iGEM judges
- Providing lactation rooms at the iGEM Giant Jamboree
Do you have any ideas about how we can make iGEM even more inclusive? Do you have any concerns about diversity at iGEM? Please contact us at: diversity AT igem DOT org.
Committee Members
The Diversity Committee works closely with the iGEM Foundation to provide guidance on gender issues and other areas of diversity. Our members are a diverse group of people who are interested in diversity in synthetic biology and beyond.
Anne S. Meyer, Committee Chair
TU Delft
Anne is a synthetic biologist who uses bacteria to create advanced materials, sometimes with our home-built 3D bacteria printer. She has been an iGEM advisor and judge since 2011.
Christina Agapakis
Creative Director, Gingko Bioworks
Christina is a synthetic biologist, artist, writer, and feminist interested in the design and communication of new biotechnologies.
Louise Horsfall
Senior Lecturer in Biotechnology, University of Edinburgh
Louise and her group research the use of synthetic biology to valorise wastes. She teaches synthetic biology to postgraduate students and has integrated iGEM participation into the taught MSc programme at Edinburgh.