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The glass podium: Gender representation within the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons (AAES) from 2010 to
Sean M Wrenn1, Rajshri M Gartland2, Lindsay E Kuo3
1Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA; Department of Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA; Department of Surgery, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL.
Background:
Despite increasing numbers of women in surgery, female underrepresentation in surgical societies remains an ongoing issue. We sought to determine the gender composition of presenters at the American Association of Endocrine Surgery annual meetings.
Methods:
Utilizing previous meeting data, we collected gender information for presenters from 2010 to 2019, including first/senior author combinations. Awards winners and invited lecturers were also reviewed. We performed binomial testing to analyze proportions of male to female presenters, with significance set at P < .05. Temporal trends were analyzed via linear regression.
Results:
Fifty-six percent of American Association of Endocrine Surgery fellows and 36% of members are female. Of 354 podium and 477 poster presentations, women were listed less often as first (42.7%, P = .007) and senior (30.6%, P < .0001) podium authors and less often as first (42.8%, P = .002) and senior (29.8%, P < .0001) poster authors. The most common combination of first/senior authors was male-male (43.1%), followed by female-male (26.8%), female-female (16.1%), and male-female (14.0%). Less than 15% of invited lecturers were women, and women represented a minority in nearly all award categories. We observed a positive trend in female first authorship over time (slope = 0.766, 95% confidence interval, 0.70%-2.23%, P = .26) but no change in female senior authorship over time (slope = 0.03348, 95% confidence interval, 1.086%-1.153%, P = .95).
Conclusion:
Women are underrepresented as American Association of Endocrine Surgery presenters and less likely to receive awards or deliver invited lectures. Although female first authorship increased over time, women continued to lag behind men as senior authors and mentors to trainees and junior faculty. Opportunities to improve speaker and awardee representation should be explored.
