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The ‘manel’—all-male panel1—in sport and exercise medicine/physiotherapy is a powerful and visible symbol of gender inequality.2 The ‘manel’ normalises the absence of women leaders (role models),3 erodes women’s confidence and ambition2 and stunts the depth and development of sport and exercise medicine/physiotherapy.3 To combat this, the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) developed its conference ‘stamp of approval’,4 which requires more than 40% women faculty and scientific committee members. Perhaps the best example of a ‘manel’ elimination strategy is affirmative action by the International Federation of Sports Physical Therapy (IFSPT). IFSPTs’ intentional efforts to ‘walk the walk’ resulted in the proportion of women speakers rising from 14% (2017) to 53% (2022).5 Despite these meaningful steps, the ‘manel’ is stubborn and defiant. A recent review of sport and exercise medicine/physiotherapy conference speakers reveals that many organisations could learn from the BJSM and IFSPT examples.
Organisations often claim barriers to speaker gender equity, but deliberate and thoughtful planning can overcome these barriers. We provide examples of intentional strategies that relate to women (figure 1), but also apply to other equity-deserving groups.
Graphical representation of recommendations to eliminate panels
Organisation
The organisation is the host, setting its own values and culture. The organisation needs a deliberate policy for diversity (involving heterogeneous people), inclusivity (belonging, valuing, accepting and leveraging dissimilar people) and a plan to promote equity (access to the same opportunities) within the organisation and across activities.
Intentional allyship strategies:
Appoint a woman6 and a man as cochairs.
Select a diverse scientific committee by asking every nominated man to nominate a woman or vice versa. Allow people to self-nominate, and deliberately encourage qualified persons from traditionally under-represented groups to apply.
Offer job-sharing arrangements for those with challenged availability, and ‘buddies’ (eg, past committee members) for the less experienced.
Set a clear mandate for committee chair and members, and expectations for session chair, panel and speaker diversity (one does not replace the other).
Ensure committee members to understand equity, diversity and inclusivity best practices.
Offer implicit bias training for members.
Renew the committee regularly to build capacity across diverse groups and career stages.
Scientific committee chair
The committee chair is the leader, setting the committee’s tone and actions and commitment to gender equity.
Intentional allyship strategies:
Explicitly state the committee’s commitment to achieve gender equity, set targets and openly discuss strategies.
Prepare to counter the ‘merit or mediocracy’ argument.
Scientific committee
The committee plays an important leadership role that is guided by the organisation’s values and the chair’s actions. However, individual members need to thoughtfully consider their own gender equity actions.
Intentional allyship strategies:
Ask about the committee’s gender equity. If women are under-represented, challenge the chair, and offer to recruit women. Take the ‘panel pledge’.3 If the gender balance does not reach your standards, consider saying no (it is easier than you think, and sends a strong message). If there is no action on gender equity, try responding with ‘I am honoured, but I cannot accept this invitation without gender equity across committee members/speakers/chairs’.
Develop a plan to identify expert women. Ask colleagues or other invited speakers, if needed. If a woman speaker declines, ask her for another woman. Search the literature for current and emerging women experts.
Prepare for women being more likely to decline an invitation due to caring responsibilities or ‘imposter syndrome.’
Caring responsibilities: If a woman declines due to caring responsibilities, ask what help can be provided—explore and offer child minding facilities (or other practical solutions), reimburse travel expenses for the dependent or another carer, encourage children at lectures and provide breastfeeding facilities.
Imposter syndrome: If an invited chair or speaker does not feel confident to accept, explain they were chosen due to their expertise, offer a mentor to assist with their preparation or have them cochair/speak with an experienced person.
Provide an alternative. If an invited woman cannot make it work, ask if they might be available for the next meeting—knowing that you value their work enough to wait is quite powerful.
Speakers
While it is an honour (and good for your career) to be invited to speak at a conference, speakers also need to consider their own gender equity actions.
Intentional allyship strategies:
Ask about gender equity in planning committees, panels and invited speakers. If women are under-represented, challenge the chair, and offer to recruit women.
Be ready to suggest expert women, including early career and junior faculty.
Eliminating ‘manels’ is vital for gender equity,2 6 as is considering intersectional representation within the gender equity framework. Sport and exercise medicine/physiotherapy can no longer hide behind tradition, claims of meritocracy or ‘jobs for the boys’. The number of qualified and talented women from all races, cultures, gender identities and abilities across sport and exercise medicine/physiotherapy is undeniable—it is time to see, hear and empower all women in sport.
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Ethics approval
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Footnotes
Twitter @kaymcrossley, @jwhittak_physio
Contributors KMC, KL and JLW contributed equally to the conception of the editorial. KMC drafted the manuscript. All authors contributed to the revision of the final draft and approved of the final version submitted.
Funding JLW is supported by a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research a Scholar Award (SCH-2020-0403) and an Arthritis Society STAR Career Development Award (STAR-19-0493).
Competing interests JLW is an Associate Editor of the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM), and Editor with the Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy. KMC is a senior advisor of BJSM, project leader of the Good Life with Osteoarthritis from Denmark (GLA:D)—Australia’s not-for-profit initiative to implement clinical guidelines in primary care and holds a research grant from Levin Health outside the submitted work.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.