Abstract
Historically, men have dominated the field of behavior analysis; however, recent trends have indicated increased participation by women. As a result of these recent changes to the field of behavior analysis, the inaugural Women in Behavior Analysis Conference (WIBA) was hosted in 2017. WIBA was initially established to highlight the accomplishments of women in the field of behavior analysis, to provide opportunities for early career behavior analysts to obtain mentorship, and to encourage meaningful discourse about gender issues in the field. Since the inaugural conference, WIBA has attempted to establish a platform for promoting gender equality but most recently has incorporated efforts related to the needs surrounding social justice and inclusiveness in the field of behavior analysis. The goal of this paper is to provide an overview of the WIBA conference. The history of WIBA is discussed, including the impetus for establishing the conference. This paper highlights existing issues on gender equality in the field of behavior analysis and the larger community, serves to demonstrate how WIBA is part of the solution, and shares accomplishments to date. Furthermore, future directions and goals are presented.
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Devon Sundberg is the Co-founder and Conference Director of WIBA and has a financial interest in WIBA since 2017. Kimberly Zoder-Martell is the Co-founder of WIBA and had a financial interest in 2017, but has received no monetary incentives since that time and declared no current conflict of interest. Sarah Cox is the Marketing Director of WIBA and has received financial incentives for WIBA since 2017.
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Sundberg, D.M., Zoder-Martell, K.A. & Cox, S. Why WIBA?. Behav Analysis Practice 12, 810–815 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-019-00369-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-019-00369-y