J. Weaver1, C. Sims2 1University Of California – San Diego,San Diego, CA, USA 2University Of Pennsylvania,Philadelphia, PA, USA
Introduction: Women face a number of barriers in academic trauma surgery, including limited role models and decreased likelihood of promotion. Participation in society meetings is important for career building and promotion, and there is particular prestige in being asked to give a named lectureship or address at a national meeting. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the roles of women at national trauma meetings.
Methods: Available scientific programs for the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST, 2013-18), Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST, 2010-19), and Western Trauma Association (WTA, 2010-18) as well as the Scudder Oration at the American College of Surgeons (1963-2018), were reviewed for names of presenters, discussants, moderators, panelists, and named lecture speakers and categorized by gender.
Results: When all meetings are combined, women made up 864 of 2481 (34.8%) of presenters, 220 of 909 (23.7%) of discussants, 101 of 573 (17.6%) of moderators of scientific sessions, 183 of 693 (26.4%) of panelists, and 66 of 248 (26.6%) of panel moderators. A breakdown by organization is shown in Figure 1. Only 9 of 120 (7.5%) of named lectures or presidential addresses were given by women. Of the 203 panels across all meetings, 67 (33.0%) were all-male “manels,” while only 4 (2.0%) were all-female.
Conclusion: The rates of discussants, moderators, presenters, and panelists are close to or above the 20% rate of female practicing surgeons, but women are given the distinction of a named lectureship or address only 7.5% of the time. This suggests that there remains a “glass ceiling” when it comes to upper-level participation in national trauma meetings. National trauma societies must offer more of these opportunities to female faculty in order to encourage their promotion and success in academia.
