Welcome to the Gender Equity in Linguistics website. This website is run by representatives of the LSA Committee on Gender Equity in Linguistics (COGEL, formerly known as COSWL). It’s our hope that you’ll find resources on tracking, promoting, and ensuring equity and inclusion in the field of linguistics across all demographics.

Why does linguistics need a gender equity committee to address gender biases in conference organization and participation?

It’s hard to get exact numbers, but there is evidence that male speakers are overrepresented as invited speakers and in conferences and journals in the field of linguistics, and in academia in general. There is ample reason to think that this is due to a culturally general implicit bias — even among women — against the perception of gender minorities as academic experts, and typically doesn’t reflect conscious, deliberate sexism. 

It is our goal to help the field combat gender bias (and other types of implicit bias, if we can) through a series of initiatives aimed at 1) learning about and publicizing the extent of gender bias in our field (through, for instance, our Conference Tracker project); 2) helping leaders in the field (like conference organizers) learn to actively combat gender bias (with, for instance, our REIL Guidebook); and 3) supporting linguists at every stage despite implicit bias (through, for instance, our Pop-Up Mentoring Program).

If you are concerned about this issue, here are things you can do.

1. if you are planning to organize a conference, share the REIL Guidebook with the organizing committee;
2. share information about gender biases in academia from this webpage with your friends and colleagues on your social media accounts to raise awareness;
3. contribute to the Conference Tracker project by letting the COGEL committee know if you notice a conference announcement that features a male-only set of invited speakers