The long-standing underrepresentation of women among medical academic leaders (deans, chairs, and professors) is well documented. However, little is known about trends in medical society leadership. Because tenure in society leadership positions contributes to academic advancement and provides opportunities to influence both the organization and the medical specialty, it is crucial to begin examining the demographics of society leadership.Methods | In this cross-sectional study, we identified 1 major physician-focused medical society for each of the 43 spe-cialty groupings listed in the 2016 Physician Specialty Data Report (Table ). 1 We generally selected the largest and/or most influential society in the field. Groupings for internal medicine/ pediatrics, neonatal-perinatal medicine, pediatric cardiology, and pediatric hematology/oncology (4 of 43 groupings) were then excluded because physicians in these specialties generally belong to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The primary outcome measures were years of presidential leadership attributed to men and women. To minimize some lack of independence across years, which is even greater for societies using 2-year presidential terms (4 of 39 societies; Table ), data were collected for a 10-year period (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017), allowing for a minimum of 5 election cycles. For 38 societies, presidents' names were assigned to the year of election. For the AAP, which changed the start of its presidential term from fall to January in 2014, presidents elected before 2014 were assigned to the year following election. Gender was determined and verified via publicly available online profiles. Onesample tests of proportions comparing the percentage of women among association presidents with the percentage of women in active practice (Figure ) were used to determine the significance (2-sided P values) of underrepresentation or overrepresentation.
Background: Our aim was to evaluate differences in reported citizenship tasks among women physicians due to personal or demographic factors and time spent performing those tasks for work. Materials and Methods: Attendees of a national women physician's leadership conference (Brave Enough Women Physicians Continuing Medical Education Conference) replied to a survey using Qualtrics ª (2019 Qualtrics, Provo, UT), in September 2019. Data collected included age, race, ethnicity, training level, medical practice, specialty, current annual total compensation, educational debt, and number of children. We asked about employment-related citizenship tasks, including time spent on those activities, and perceived obligation to volunteer for citizenship tasks. Descriptive and impact of demographic factors on those opinions were evaluated using IBM SPSS v26.0. Results: Three hundred eighty-nine women physicians replied. When compared with their younger counterparts, women physicians older than 49 years stated they feel obligated to volunteer for these tasks because of their gender (p = 0.049), and were less likely able to decide which citizenship tasks they were assigned to (p = 0.021). Furthermore, a higher proportion of women of color physicians perceived race as a factor in feeling obligated to volunteer for workrelated citizenship tasks, when compared with White women physicians (p < 0.001). Additionally, nearly 50% of women physicians reported spending more time on citizenship tasks than their male counterparts. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that gender, race, and age may play a role in the decision of women physicians to participate in work-related citizenship tasks. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report on work-related citizenship tasks as described by women physicians. Still, an in-depth assessment on the role citizenship tasks play in the culture of healthcare is warranted.
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