Gender distribution in board memberships of emergency medicine societies

Gender equality in national cardiology societies: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Higher productivity and team stability has been shown for gender diverse teams. However, there is a relevant and well-known gender gap in clinical and academic cardiovascular medicine. So far, no data concerning gender distribution in presidents and executive boards of national cardiology societies exist.

METHODS

In this cross-sectional analysis, gender equality in presidents and representatives of all national cardiology societies, which are members of or affiliated with the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) in 2022 was analyzed. In addition, representatives of the American Heart Association (AHA) were evaluated.

RESULTS

A total of 106 national societies were screened of which 104 were included in the final analysis. Overall, in these 104 societies, 90 out of 106 (85%) presidents were men while 14 (13%) were women. In the analysis of board members and executives, a total of 1128 individuals were included. Overall, 809 (72%) board members were men, 258 (23%) women and 61 (5%) of unknown gender. Except for society presidents in Australia, women were relevantly outnumbered by men in all world regions.

CONCLUSION

Women were globally underrepresented in leading positions of national cardiology societies in all world regions. As national societies are important regional stakeholders, improving gender equality in executive boards might create women role models, help foster careers and narrow the global cardiology gender gap.

Gender differences in pulmonology and critical care authorship and editorial boards

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to characterize the gender distribution of first authors, senior authors, and editorial board members across several high-impact factor journals in PCCM.

METHODS

In this cross-sectional study, we analysed gender disparities in critical care authorship and editorial boards, based on publications from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2021 from the top 20 high impact journals based on the Journal of Citation Reports.

RESULTS

Among 20 journals (median impact factor of 6.66), 25% of editors-in-chief and 28.8% of editorial board members were female. From 2019 to 2021, a total of 23,994 articles were published. Female first authors and last authors made up 29.1% and 21.2% of the authorship, respectively (n = 6637 articles).

CONCLUSIONS

Our study demonstrates significant gender disparities in critical care authorship and editorial boards, with males predominantly filling the roles of editors in chief, editorial members, and first and senior authors. Despite this significant difference in gender distribution, there was no statistically significant correlation between authorship and editor gender.

Gender distribution in boards of intensive care medicine societies

PURPOSE

The established gender gap in intensive care medicine is larger compared to other medical specialties. The aim of this study was to evaluate gender distribution in boards of intensive care medicine societies worldwide.

METHODS

In this cross-sectional analysis, board members and presidents of all intensive care medicine societies associated with the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine were eligible for study inclusion. Exclusion criteria were: A) society without focus on intensive care and B) online information unavailable.

RESULTS

In 2021, 65 presidents and 820 board members were analyzed. Ten presidents (15%) and 231 board members (28%) were women. The proportion of women presidents reached from 0% in Africa to 20% in Europe and South America. The proportion of women board members was highest in North and South America with 42% and 46% respectively and lowest in Africa (21%) and Asia (10%). In Europe, 31% of board members were women and 35% in Australia/New Zealand. Among presidents, women were underrepresented in all continents while gender distribution among board members varied significantly between countries (p < 0.0001).

CONCLUSION

Our analysis reveals an inequality in gender distribution in the boards of national intensive care medicine societies which varies but persists for all global regions.

Gender distribution in emergency medicine journals: editorial board memberships in top-ranked academic journals

OBJECTIVE

Despite an established gender gap in academic medicine, evidence on gender diversity in emergency medicine is scarce. In the present study, gender distribution of editorial boards and among editors-in-chief of 31 emergency medicine journals was investigated in 2020/2021 and compared to 2015 and 2010. Additionally, gender distribution in editorial boards of emergency medicine journals was compared to editorial boards in five different medical specialties.

METHODS

In this cross-sectional analysis, gender of editorial board members and editors-in-chief of journals ranked in the Clarivate Analytics 'Journal Citation Report' (JCR) of 2019 in the sections 'Emergency Medicine', 'Medicine General and Internal', 'Surgery', 'Obstetrics and Gynecology', 'Pediatrics' and 'Orthopedics' were analyzed.

RESULTS

In the investigated 31 emergency medicine journals, three out of 35 editors-in-chief (9%) and 299 out of 1810 editorial board members (17%) were women in 2020/2021. In 2015 and 2010, two editors-in-chief were women (13% vs. 15%). In 2015, 19% of editorial board members were women and in 2010 it was 18%, respectively. There was no significant difference in gender distribution among editors-in-chief and editorial board members comparing 2020/2021 with 2015 and 2010 (P = 0.76 vs. P = 0.40, respectively). There was a lower percentage of women in editorial boards of emergency medicine journals compared to the top five JCR-ranked journals in the categories 'Medicine General and Internal', 'Surgery', 'Gynecology and Obstetrics' and 'Pediatrics'.

CONCLUSION

The gender gap in editorial boards and among editors-in-chief of emergency medicine journals seems to be consistent for the last 10 years. Gender disparity appears to be substantial in academic emergency medicine: The percentage of women in emergency medicine editorial boards was lower compared to editorial boards of four other medical specialties.