Gender Inclusion and Representation in the Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology

Abstract Academic and professional conferences provide opportunities for the dissemination of knowledge, networking, and professional development. Those in more prestigious roles often gain greater visibility, and invited roles in particular make important statements about whose research the profession values most. Conference participation is therefore a source of economic, social, and cultural capital that translates into real opportunities and future career success. In this article, we examine gender representation in the field of archaeology through the lens of participation in the annual meetings of the Society for American Archaeology (SAA). Using archived SAA annual meeting programs from 2002 to 2024, we analyze differences in gender representation across conference roles and participation formats. We find that although women and men are similarly likely to fill self-selected leadership roles, women are less frequently asked to fill invited roles by their peers, particularly when men serve as organizers. We thus argue that gender plays a strong role in determining who occupies positions of prestige and that decisions about who is “qualified” affect distributions of capital within the discipline. We conclude by recommending a series of interventions to session organizers, session participants, and the SAA to help redress gender-based differences in conference participation.