Gender Bias Row Involving Parasitic Worms

Parasitic worms have been sucked into the gender bias row after a report came out to claim that the naming of the creatures was sexist. 

FYI, there are three types that infect humans: flukes (trematodes), tapeworms (cestodes), and roundworms (nematodes). A fourth type, thorny-headed worms (acanthocephalans) primarily infects animals and human infection is very rare. 

A team of scientists, led by parasitologist Robert Poulin, scoured studies in eight journals published between 2000 and 2020. And around 2,900 species were discovered during that period – with 200 in 2007 alone. 

"We found a consistent gender bias among species named after eminent scientists, with male scientists being immortalised disproportionately more frequently than female scientists", said the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 

And of the 596 species named after eminent scientists, only 111, or 19%, recognized women, according to the researchers from New Zealand's University of Otago. Of 71 scientists honoured in the Latin names of two or more species, only eight were women. 

They claimed that the gender bias had shown "no evidence of improving over time in the past two decades". 

They also cited a problem with "etymological nepotism and cronyism" in the naming of helminths. The report noted a "tendency for taxonomists to name new species after a family member or close friend has increased over the past 20 years". 

Sometimes, I wonder if there is any real value to be derived from this type of study, other than knowing that gender bias exists in the naming of these macroparasites!