Insights from the “Women in Evolutionary Biology Workshop” on gender equality in science

In May 2024, the Women in Evolutionary Biology Workshop was held at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology. The event served as a platform for researchers to present their scientific work and to reflect on challenges that can arise for women in academic environments. The program featured scientific talks and poster sessions, alongside discussion forums focused on advancing equity and improving working conditions in academia. In this manuscript, we provide an overview of the workshop and highlight key themes that emerged from the discussions. These included under-representation in leadership roles, implicit bias, structural inequality, intersectionality, workplace culture, and the impact of parenthood on academic careers. By situating these insights within the broader scholarly literature, we identify recurring structural patterns across institutions and disciplines. We also offer actionable strategies to inform efforts toward a more supportive academic culture. The workshop discussions emphasized how power imbalances and distorted assumptions about meritocracy can contribute to unequal access to opportunities, with intersectional factors-such as race, class, and cultural background-further shaping these dynamics. This manuscript highlights the value of events like this one and contributes to ongoing conversations around equity and inclusion in science by capturing and contextualizing the experiences and reflections shared during the workshop.