Gender representation of speakers at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine postgraduate courses: a 20-year review

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The percentage of female physicians has grown significantly in past decades, with women currently making up 56% of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's board-certified membership. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to describe trends in the gender of invited speakers at postgraduate courses, panels, and debates at the annual meetings of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine over the last 2 decades. STUDY DESIGN: We performed a retrospective observational study examining annual meetings of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in 1999, 2009, and 2015e2019. Invited speakers were identified through publicly available programs and examined by gender, degree, and the session of involvement. Postgraduate lectures (including courses, workshops, and forums), panels, and debates were examined. Speakers with Medicinae Doctor (or equivalent) degrees and obstetrics and gynecology training were included.

Gender analysis of Journal of Perinatology authorship during COVID-19

“…Gender disparities have been well-documented in many facets of medical careers, including in scholarly work and career advancement [ 1 – 3 ]. Although the majority of the pediatric and maternal-fetal medicine physicians are women [ 4 , 5 ], women physicians are underrepresented as authors and editors across pediatric journals [ 4 , 6 – 8 ]. Women physicians also receive fewer external grants than men, which may hinder their research output [ 9 ].…”