Deane Galbraith counted forty women from the first one hundred and thirty-seven presenters at SBL 2011 (see “Women at the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) Annual Meeting 2011”). That is 29%. I decided to take the count further so I went as far as five hundred presenters (+ or – a handful due to oversight). My count (+ or – 15ish) was 143/500. That is about 29%. If anyone does a more thorough investigation let me know. Also, it would be neat to know where AAR lands on the spectrum.

While some may not be pleased with the 7-3 man-to-woman ratio at SBL it sure beats the 99-1 of ETS. For more on this see Michael Bird’s plea for more women to become involved in ETS: “Woman, Thou art Loosed! Now Get ye Self to ETS!”