Spotlighting the Imbalance: Gender Disparities Among Speakers and Awardees at Pediatric Emergency Medicine Conferences.
Academic Article
Overview
abstract
OBJECTIVE: Gender disparities exist among national speakers and award recipients. Pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) represents the intersection of pediatrics, a female-dominated specialty with approximately 58% women, and emergency medicine, a male-dominated specialty. We describe the proportion of women speakers and award recipients at two national PEM conferences, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Section on Emergency Medicine (SOEM) and the Advanced PEM Assembly (APEMA), to the AAP National Conference and Exhibition (NCE), a national pediatric conference. METHODS: Data from SOEM and APEMA, obtained from 2016-2021 was compared to the 2021 NCE. Invited speakers, abstract presenters, and award recipients were identified. Gender was determined by searching each individual's name for self-identification. Gender proportions were compared across conferences, speaker type, and year. RESULTS: Compared to the NCE, a significantly smaller proportion of women were invited speakers at APEMA (NCE 59.9% vs. APEMA 38.8%, p<0.001), but similar proportions of women were invited speakers (53.9%, p=0.178) and awardees at SOEM (50% vs. 50%, p=1.0). A larger number of women were SOEM abstract presenters than invited speakers (63.3% vs. 53.9%, p=.041). Between 2016-2021, the proportion of women invited speakers (SOEM, p=0.744; APEMA, p=0.947) or abstract presenters (SOEM, p=0.632) did not significantly change. CONCLUSIONS: As compared to NCE, women are underrepresented as speakers at APEMA, but not at SOEM. Abstract presenters are more likely to be women as compared to invited speakers. While awards appear equally distributed, recipients do not mirror the proportion of women in PEM. Conference organizers and leaders in PEM should ensure gender equity in national recognition.
