TY - JOUR
T1 - Gender disparities among speakers at major spine conferences
AU - Lee, Yunsoo
AU - Issa, Tariq Z.
AU - Lambrechts, Mark J.
AU - Carey, Preston
AU - Becsey, Alexander
AU - Qadiri, Qudratullah S.
AU - Khanna, Akshay
AU - Canseco, Jose A.
AU - Schroeder, Gregory D.
AU - Kepler, Christopher K.
AU - Hilibrand, Alan S.
AU - Vaccaro, Alexander R.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Purpose: To examine ten-year trends in gender representation in speaking roles at major spine conferences. Background context: Medical conferences play an important role in career opportunities. There is little analysis on gender representation of major spine conferences despite several studies demonstrating gender disparities within spine surgery. Study Design: Observational study. Sample: A total of 20,181 abstract speakers across 10 years of academic conferences for six spine societies. Outcome Measures: Percent of female abstract presenters. Materials and Methods: We collated the annual meeting programs of six major spine conferences (North American Spine Society (NASS), Scoliosis Research Society (SRS), International Meeting on Advanced Spine Techniques (IMAST), Global Spine Congress (GSC), American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons (AANS/CNS) Spine Summit, and the Cervical Spine Research Society (CSRS)) dating from 2013 to 2022. Departmental websites, society webpages, or personal social media were identified for images or the use of gendered pronouns in order to determine speaker gender for each speaker type. All categorical variables were compared using Pearson chi-square analysis. Results: Women constituted 1,816 (9.0%) of all 20,181 identified conference speakers. Female representation was highest at NASS (N=680, 12.2%) but lowest at CSRS (6.6%) and GSC (7.1%). Spine Summit (7.4%), IMAST (9.92%), and GSC (9.87%) demonstrated the largest annual percent increases in female representation. Institutions in Middle East and Africa (1.4%), and Central and South America (1.8%) supported the lowest percent of female speakers. Women were significantly less likely to be speakers or moderators/course faculty than to be podium abstract presenters (p<.001). The percent of women as invited speakers (10.4% vs. 5.5%, p=.001) and moderators (11.4% vs. 3.7%, p<.001) increased significantly over the study period, with annual increases of 8.8% and 20.8%, respectively, from 2013 to 2022 (p<.001). Conclusions: While academic spine societies have made significant progress in promoting gender representation, especially among invited speakers and session moderators, women continue to be underrepresented compared to the percent of women in orthopedic surgery and neurosurgery.
AB - Purpose: To examine ten-year trends in gender representation in speaking roles at major spine conferences. Background context: Medical conferences play an important role in career opportunities. There is little analysis on gender representation of major spine conferences despite several studies demonstrating gender disparities within spine surgery. Study Design: Observational study. Sample: A total of 20,181 abstract speakers across 10 years of academic conferences for six spine societies. Outcome Measures: Percent of female abstract presenters. Materials and Methods: We collated the annual meeting programs of six major spine conferences (North American Spine Society (NASS), Scoliosis Research Society (SRS), International Meeting on Advanced Spine Techniques (IMAST), Global Spine Congress (GSC), American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons (AANS/CNS) Spine Summit, and the Cervical Spine Research Society (CSRS)) dating from 2013 to 2022. Departmental websites, society webpages, or personal social media were identified for images or the use of gendered pronouns in order to determine speaker gender for each speaker type. All categorical variables were compared using Pearson chi-square analysis. Results: Women constituted 1,816 (9.0%) of all 20,181 identified conference speakers. Female representation was highest at NASS (N=680, 12.2%) but lowest at CSRS (6.6%) and GSC (7.1%). Spine Summit (7.4%), IMAST (9.92%), and GSC (9.87%) demonstrated the largest annual percent increases in female representation. Institutions in Middle East and Africa (1.4%), and Central and South America (1.8%) supported the lowest percent of female speakers. Women were significantly less likely to be speakers or moderators/course faculty than to be podium abstract presenters (p<.001). The percent of women as invited speakers (10.4% vs. 5.5%, p=.001) and moderators (11.4% vs. 3.7%, p<.001) increased significantly over the study period, with annual increases of 8.8% and 20.8%, respectively, from 2013 to 2022 (p<.001). Conclusions: While academic spine societies have made significant progress in promoting gender representation, especially among invited speakers and session moderators, women continue to be underrepresented compared to the percent of women in orthopedic surgery and neurosurgery.
KW - Academic conferences
KW - Disparities
KW - Gender
KW - Neurosurgery
KW - Orthopedic surgery
KW - Podium presentations
KW - Speakers
KW - Spine
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85173062225&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.spinee.2023.08.024
DO - 10.1016/j.spinee.2023.08.024
M3 - Article
C2 - 37690480
AN - SCOPUS:85173062225
SN - 1529-9430
JO - Spine Journal
JF - Spine Journal
ER -