Article Text
- Sheree Bekker1,
- Osman H Ahmed2,3,
- Ummukulthoum Bakare4,5,
- Tracy A Blake6,7,
- Alison M Brooks8,
- Todd E Davenport9,
- Luciana De Michelis Mendonça10,
- Lauren V Fortington11,
- Michael Himawan12,
- Joanne L Kemp13,
- Karen Litzy12,
- Roland F Loh14,
- James MacDonald15,
- Carly D McKay16,
- Andrea B Mosler13,
- Margo Mountjoy17,
- Ann Pederson18,
- Melanie I Stefan19,20,
- Emma Stokes21,22,
- Amy J Vassallo23,24,
- Jackie L Whittaker25
- 1 Unaffiliated, South Africa
- 2 Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, UK
- 3 The FA Centre for Disability Football Research, The Football Association, UK
- 4 Physiotherapy Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- 5 Medical and Scientific Commission, Nigeria Olympic Committee, Lagos, Nigeria
- 6 Department of Physiotherapy, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- 7 Canadian Sport Institute Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- 8 University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
- 9 Department of Physical Therapy, University of the Pacific, Stockton, California, USA
- 10 Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri (UFVJM), Diamantina, Brazil
- 11 Australian Centre for Research into Injury in Sport and its Prevention (ACRISP), Federation University Australia, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
- 12 Unaffiliated, USA
- 13 La Trobe Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- 14 Kingston University London, London, UK
- 15 Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA
- 16 Department for Health, University of Bath, Bath, UK
- 17 McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
- 18 BC Women’s Hospital + Health Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- 19 Edinburgh Medical School: Biomedical Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- 20 ZJU-UoE Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
- 21 World Confederation for Physical Therapy, London, UK
- 22 Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- 23 University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- 24 Franklin Women, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- 25 University of Alberta and Glen Sather Sports Medicine Clinic, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- Correspondence to Dr Sheree Bekker; shereebekker{at}gmail.com
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In 2015, a website (www.allmalepanels.tumblr.com/) began documenting instances of all-male panels (colloquially known as a ‘manel’). This, along with the Twitter hashtag #manel, has helped drive recognition of the persistent and pervasive gender bias in the composition of experts assembled to present at conferences and other events.
Recent social media discussions have similarly highlighted the prevalence of all-male panels in Sport and Exercise Medicine (SEM). While, to our knowledge, all-male panel trends in SEM have not yet formally been documented or published, one need look no further than SEM conference committees, keynote speaker lists, panels and other events to see that it exists in practice. Why, in 2018, is SEM and its related disciplines still failing to identify and acknowledge the role that implicit bias plays in the very structure of our own research, practice and education? SEM is, after all, a profession that contains experts, and serves populations, of all genders.
This editorial will introduce the definition, implications and manifestations of implicit gender bias and then explore how the SEM community can begin to address this issue, advance the discussion and develop a more equitable global community.
What is implicit bias?
Social cognitive theory describes ‘implicit bias’ as the unconscious …
Footnotes
Contributors SB drafted this manuscript. All other coauthors critically reviewed and edited the manuscript.
Funding This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent Not required.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Correction notice This article has been corrected since it was published Online First. Table 2 has been corrected in order to remove a statement pointing to an external document, which was not published.