Why WIBA?
WIBA is a yearly conference that lifts women in ABA through visible role models and hands-on mentorship.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Sundberg and colleagues wrote a short story about WIBA. WIBA stands for Women in Behavior Analysis. It is an annual conference. The paper tells why the meeting started and what it has done so far.
What they found
The group created WIBA to give women a bigger stage. The event offers talks, mentorship, and networking. These steps help move the field toward gender equity and social justice.
How this fits with other research
Li et al. (2019) show the problem WIBA tries to fix. Their survey found women faculty in ABA programs earn 6–15 % less than men at every rank. The pay gap is larger than in psychology overall.
Rehfeldt (2018) gives the advice side. Her piece shares career tips for early-career female academics. WIBA turns that same advice into real-life mentorship at its conference.
Elcoro (2024) highlights forgotten female pioneers like Susan Meyer Markle. WIBA keeps the spotlight on new voices so they are not forgotten again.
McComas et al. (2025) push for wider ethics reform in ABA. Both papers urge the field to face its biases—WIBA focuses on gender while McComas focuses on ableism.
Why it matters
If you hire, teach, or supervise, you help shape the next wave of BCBAs. Send your female staff and students to WIBA or create local mentorship circles. Share pay data inside your agency and fix gaps now. Small moves like these grow a fairer, stronger behavior-analysis workforce.
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02At a glance
03Original 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.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2019 · doi:10.1007/s40617-019-00369-y