Representation of women in pediatric dermatology leadership and research: Trends over the past 45 years

Abstract

For more than 5 decades, the percentage of women dermatologists has risen steadily. In 1970, women comprised just 7% of practicing dermatologists, 1 whereas in 2017, women represented 49% of the physician workforce in dermatology. 2 During this same time, women have gained increasing representation as speakers at national dermatology meetings 3-5 and as first authors of research articles in

Gender disparities in high-quality dermatology research over the past 15 years

“…Refinement and subdivision were conducted to include the 100 most-cited articles in each 3-year interval between 2009 and 2023. The 100 most-cited articles were refined as described previously by Mahamud and Mainwaring and by Bullock et al 12,13 and the use of 3-year intervals was described by Baker et al 8 To encompass the trends that have occurred over the years, we conducted the search using the following strategy: results were restricted to original articles in the WebOS category of dermatology between 2009 and 2023. Raw data and graphs were analyzed using Microsoft Excel software.…”

“…9 Thus, in the abovementioned analysis of the field of dermatology, the trends were less steep and showed a lower first and senior FAP than in subanalyses of subfields of dermatology, such as pediatrics or contact dermatitis. [7][8][9] Therefore, to further validate and report gender disparities in high-quality dermatology research, we focused our analysis on the 100 most-cited articles published in the top 5 Q1 dermatology journals in 3-year intervals between 2009 and 2023.…”

Diversity in pediatric dermatology: A report from the Pediatric Dermatology Research Alliance and a call to action

“…Alarming gender disparities also exist. Although studies show that the field of dermatology has had a substantial increase in the percentage of females (from 10.8% in 1970 to 51.2% in 2018) and an annual increase of female residents by approximately 1.1% per year, a disproportionate lack of females in leadership positions was found 4,10‐12 . One review showed that even in the late 2010s, less than 25% of dermatology department chairs are female 10 .…”

“…A 36‐year study of the composition of all the individuals who held leadership positions within the American Academy of Dermatology showed that just under 40% were female 13 . Specifically in pediatric dermatology, a 2020 study found that although females make up nearly 80% of the pediatric dermatology workforce, they speak at less than half (44%) of named lectureships at major annual conferences in the field 12 …”

“…When they looked specifically at the 50 most cited authors, only 3 were female (6%) 14 . However, a separate study of articles published in the journal Pediatric Dermatology found that the percentage of female first and senior authors has increased significantly since 1983, citing that by 2019, females made up 71% of first authors and 65% of senior authors 12 . Although representation of URM authors was not evaluated, suggestion has been made that equivalent or more impactful publications authored by URM scientists are less likely to receive the notoriety of those published by their non‐URM peers 15,16 .…”