The orthopedic gender gap: trends in authorship and editorial board representation over the past 4 decades

The purpose of this study was to quantify the representation of women among the authors and editorial board members of prominent general orthopedics journals and to determine how these proportions have changed over time. Gender was determined for the authors of all original research studies, case reports, and review articles published in 2 prominent general orthopedics journals in 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2007. Gender was also determined for each individual serving on the editorial boards of these journals during these years. Between 1970 and 2007, the representation of women increased from 0.8% to 6.5% among first authors (P<.001), from 0.0% to 4.3% among last authors (P = .015), and from 1.6% to 5.4% among editorial board members (P = .16). However, the rates of increase observed in orthopedics were lower than those observed in other fields (P<.05). Between 1970 and 2007, female representation increased significantly among physicians publishing in 2 prominent general orthopedics journals, but these rates of increase were lower than those observed in other fields of medicine.