Gender equity in medical publications: Nurses have smashed the glass ceiling
Publication type
journal article
Publication date
2021
Author(s)
Feral-Pierssens, A.-L.
Avondo, A.
Stefano, C.D.
Deltour, S.
Lapostolle, F.
Language
English
View point(s)
Global
Discipline(s)
Geographical area
Abstract
Introduction Gender equity has become a major concern in many professional fields. The rate of women as authors has to be interpreted according to the rate of women in the related professions. In this perspective, studying nurses' population should be of particular interest since, worldwide, nurses are mostly women. Then, our aim was to study gender disparity in nurses' publications. Methods We selected the three main journals dedicated to nurse publications: International Journal of Nursing Studies, Journal of Nursing Scholarship, and European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing. We included 20 recent consecutive papers from each journal. For each paper, the number of authors, their gender, and rank were recorded. Primary endpoint: Overall rate of women as authors. Secondary endpoints: Rate of women as first, last, second, and third authors. Results Sixty papers including 322 authors were analysed. Overall rate of women authors: 74%. Overall rate of women as first author: 82%. Overall rate of women as last author: 72%. Overall rate of women as second and third authors: Respectively, 80% and 70%. Conclusion Almost three-quarters of the authors in these main scientific journals of nursing studies were female. This rate is lower than the gender rate in the nursing profession. © 2021 SAGE Publications Inc.. All rights reserved.
Journal
European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing
ISSN
1873-1953
Volume
20
Issue
7
Pagination
657-659