Consistent with power and status differences between men and women in society, men tend to participate more than women do in question-and-answer (Q&A) sessions at in-person academic conferences. This gap in participation in scientific discourse may perpetuate the status quo. The current research examines whether this gender gap in participation in Q&A sessions extends to virtual conferences, which have become more prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to shifts in conference formats to enable asynchronous, anonymous, and/or simultaneous participation, we examined whether virtual conferences are more inclusive, and mitigate the gender gap in Q&A participation. Across four virtual conferences that varied in gender representation and Q&A structured format, men continued to take a disproportionate amount of time and space in Q&A sessions. Disproportionate participation did not significantly vary between in-person and virtual formats and did not systematically vary by how the Q&A session was organized. In an all-chat virtual conference, gender differences in volubility were attenuated among higher status academics. Gendered participation and volubility were also impacted by which sub-discipline the presentation was in. Discussion considers the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for understanding the persistence of gender inequality in science. We encourage future research that attends to the cultural factors that promote or mitigate gender disparities in participation.

与社会中男性和女性之间的权力和地位差异一致，男性往往比女性更多地参与现场学术会议的问答 (Q&A) 会议。这种参与科学话语的差距可能会延续现状。目前的研究探讨了参与问答环节的性别差距是否会延伸到虚拟会议，虚拟会议在 COVID-19 大流行期间变得更加普遍。由于会议形式的转变以实现异步、匿名和/或同时参与，我们研究了虚拟会议是否更具包容性，并缩小了问答参与中的性别差距。在性别代表性和问答结构形式各不相同的四场虚拟会议中，男性在问答环节中继续占据不成比例的时间和空间。面对面和虚拟形式之间的不成比例的参与没有显着差异，并且没有因问答环节的组织方式而系统性地变化。在全聊天虚拟会议中，地位较高的学者之间的性别差异在言论上有所减弱。性别参与和发言权也受到演讲所属子学科的影响。讨论考虑了这些发现对于理解科学领域持续存在的性别不平等的理论和实践意义。我们鼓励未来的研究关注促进或减轻参与性别差异的文化因素。