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  • The Increase in Female Speakers at Medical Conferences Over the Past Decade

    JAMA Network Open. 2019;2(4).

    While not involving nurse anesthesia conferences, this was an analysis of 181 medical conferences from 2007 through 2017, finding that the proportions of female speakers significantly increased from 24.6% to 34.1%. These proportions mirrored the percentages of practicing physicians who were women during the same time frame. While the proportion of female speakers at these conferences increased during the last decade, women remained underrepresented at medical conferences.

    It is clear that gender equity is a prominent issue in the healthcare professions. With respect to physicians at medical conferences, representation of female physicians at academic meetings is known to be an important component of gender equity; however, this topic has not been systematically assessed until this study was done.

    It seems that the time is right for academic nurse anesthesia to examine this issue to assess the state of gender equity in the conferences that target nurse anesthetists. Anyone out there up to the challenge?