Gender Equity at Surgical Conferences: Quantity and Quality

Area of Science:

• Surgical education and professional development.
• Gender equity in academic medicine.

Background:

• Meaningful participation of women at national surgery conferences is crucial for gender equity.
• Representation should reflect scientific and clinical achievement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the correlation between women's presence on planning committees and speaker diversity.
• To examine the impact of female moderators on the number of female panelists.
• To analyze the topics presented by women compared to men.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of four 2018 national surgery conferences.
• Review of published online conference programs for participant gender and presentation roles.
• Statistical analysis using chi-squared tests and t-tests.

Main Results:

• Overall, 28% of speakers were women.
• Increased female representation on planning committees and as moderators correlated with higher numbers of women speakers and panelists.
• Women were more likely to present on professionalism and advocacy than clinical or technical surgical topics.

Conclusions:

• Gender disparities persist in surgical conferences despite diversity efforts.
• Planning committee and moderator diversity positively influence speaker and panelist diversity.
• Women are underrepresented in clinical and technical surgical topic presentations.