Although female academics who spoke at the Australasian Evolution Society conference spoke for less time than their male counterparts, because more of them spoke, the average female academic attendee (including those who did not speak) spoke for 7.37 minutes as opposed to 7.07 minutes for the average male academic (“They could go on, but they don’t”, News, 6 November).
It is also possible that the concise females left their listeners hungry for more, whereas the prolix males bored the pants off them.
Sean Neill, associate fellow
Centre for Education Studies, University of Warwick