Towards family-friendly conferences: results from a first survey in the geosciences

Building an academic career requires a high level of dedication to research, frequent publishing, and maintaining visibility within the academic community. Scientific conferences are the central platforms for networking and knowledge exchange, making them keystones of an academic career. However, the early stages of an academic career often coincide with family planning considerations. Many young researchers face the challenge of balancing professional responsibilities with family obligations. A balancing act that becomes particularly difficult during non-routine work events such as conferences. Such occasions tend to pose significant organizational challenges for families. As mothers still provide most of the care, they are disproportionately affected. This conflict is an important factor contributing to the “leaky pipeline” by inhibiting the progression of women through academic ranks. Increasing the family-friendliness of conferences has the potential to diversify the scientific community, allowing more parents to participate, while reducing the tension between academic work and family obligations. Here, we present the results of an online survey among researchers in the geoscientific field, primarily based in Europe. The required support of parents at scientific conferences is analyzed and the acceptance for the implementation of new support offered by researchers without children is examined. Our key findings are that (1) parents wish for more support at conferences, (2) the majority of non-parents welcome family-friendly measures, and (3) conference organizers can accomplish a lot in this respect, even with small adjustments. The responses we received from parents paint a qualitative picture of measures that can be considered to create a family-friendly conference experience, ranging from increased transparency and awareness for the challenges of parents to tangible offers such as childcare and financial support. Our findings are distilled into guidelines for conference organizers, allowing them to better address the work-family conflict and transform their conferences towards more equity, diversity, and inclusion.