It is a requirement of BSA funding that event organisers adhere to the following BPA/SWIP Good Practice recommendations on conference organisation:

  1. When drawing up a list of potential invited speakers, take reasonable steps to ensure that women are well represented; see the Good Practice website (bpa.ac.uk/resources/women-in-philosophy/good-practice) for more information and advice.
  2. Where possible, consult the women on your list before fixing the date of the conference, to ensure that women speakers are not just invited but will actually attend.
  3. Women may well be at lower-prestige institutions and/or in lower-ranked jobs. (E.g. in the UK, only 12% of professors in Russell Group philosophy departments are women.) They may therefore have less access to institutional funding. If you cannot fund all speakers, ask bigger-name speakers whether they can fund their own travel (they can always say no), freeing up resources for less well-known speakers.
  4. Organisers should ensure that male and female speakers are treated equally on publicity material and the conference programme (e.g. to avoid the situation where a male speaker is described as ‘Senior Lecturer in philosophy at …’ but a female speaker, also an SL, is described as ‘teaches philosophy at …’; or where the male speaker’s title (Dr, Prof.) is included by the female speaker’s isn’t).
  5. Investigate whether the provision of childcare facilities for the duration of the conference is possible. Many universities have crèches on or near campus, which may be able to offer a day rate for conference delegates. For larger conferences, if campus facilities are not available consider hosting the conference at a hotel that offers childcare and babysitting services. Consider setting aside funding to subsidise the use of childcare facilities by delegates; see the Good Practice website for more information and advice.
    In addition, the BSA will monitor the gender balance of conferences and other events that it funds. It is a requirement of funding that statistics on the gender balance of the speakers at the event are provided by the organisers as part of the final report. Where a conference or event manifests an obvious gender imbalance, the BSA will make enquiries in order to satisfy itself that appropriate steps to promote the representation of women were taken by the organisers.