Gender disparities in gastroenterology and hepatology conferences: The journey towards equality

This study scrutinizes gender representation in invited faculty and conference committee leadership at key gastroenterology and hepatology conferences in Pakistan over five years, exploring the impact of the "glass ceiling" and "sticky floor" phenomena on gender diversity within academic medicine.

This cross-sectional study was conducted between January and March of 2023. The three major national societies of gastroenterology and hepatology in Pakistan that had been established for more than 10 years and the scientific programs of their annual conferences, which were publicly accessible, were included and coded as Society 1, Society 2 and Society 3 to maintain anonymity. The scientific programs for the last five years (2018-2022) were retrieved. The roles of invited faculties were identified as invited speakers, moderators, chairs/panelists, presidents and chairs of organizing or scientific committees and the gender makeup of the faculty was compared. Regression analysis was used to evaluate the trends for female representation over time for each role.

Significant gender disparity was evident by an extremely lower cumulative proportion of female invited faculty compared to males (211 [11.9%] vs. 1567 [88.1%], p 0.001). The predominance of invited male faculty was observed across all societies as well as in various roles of invited faculty (p 0.01). A significant disparity has also been observed in leadership positions of all three societies (43 [95.5%] males vs. 2 [4.5%] females, p 0.001), while the trend of women's underrepresentation across all societies remained almost unchanged over time (slope = 0.08, R² =  - 0.078, p-value = 0.875).

Our study unveils striking gender disparities in women's representation as invited speakers and other roles at the annual scientific conferences of major gastroenterology and hepatology. Additionally, male dominance remains entrenched, notably in leadership positions, necessitating a proactive, multifaceted approach to rectify gender inequities.