Gender Disparity in Pediatric Surgery: An Evaluation of Pediatric Surgery Conference Participation
Publication type
journal article
Publication date
2023
Author(s)
Language
English
View point(s)
Global
Discipline(s)
Abstract
Background: Leadership in academic conferences is an important factor for academic advancement. Underrepresentation of women in academic surgical conferences has been demonstrated in other subspecialties, but it has not been well-studied in pediatric surgery. Methods: This retrospective descriptive study analyzes conference participation at 2 national pediatric surgery annual conference programs from 2003 to 2022. Moderator, speakers, and research presenter sex was collected. The primary outcome was the proportion of female participants in each of these roles. Mann-Kendall trend test was conducted to assess for significance. Results: Across 29 meetings, a total of 523 sessions were examined. Overall, female participation in all roles increased from 2003 to 2022. There were statistically positive trends of female participation in leadership roles as moderator (p = 0.003) and speaker (p = 0.01), with moderator role demonstrating the largest proportional female increase over time - with a 7-fold increase from 7.1% in 2003 to 50.0% in 2022. There was also a significant increasing trend in female participation as research presenters (p < 0.01) from 25.4% to 46.4%. Conclusion: Gender representation in pediatric surgery conferences has improved over the last two decades. Women now represent approximately half of all participatory roles, and efforts to continue providing equal opportunities for women at pediatric surgery academic conferences should continue. Level of evidence: N/A. Type of study: Retrospective Descriptive. (c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Journal
JOURNAL OF PEDIATRIC SURGERY
ISSN
0022-3468
Volume
58
Issue
6
Pagination
1139-1144