Speaking up for balance: analysis of the gender of invited speakers at UK dental conferences

Abstract

Introduction Across healthcare, there is an urgent call to action to address systematic gender bias impeding equity for women. Gender imbalance exists for speakers at medical conferences. This research presents the first descriptive analysis of gender balance of speakers at dental conferences. Objectives Describe the gender balance of invited speakers at UK conferences of the dental specialties and general dentistry in a two-year period. Consider the findings in relation to gender balance of dental and specialist registrants. Method Gender, presentation length and professional role were extracted from conference programmes. Acceptable gender balance was pre-specified as 40-60%. Gender data were extracted from the GDC registration report. Results Of 352 invited speakers, 39.8% (n = 140) were identified as female and 60.2% (n = 212) as male. Gender was acceptably balanced in 21.4% (n = 3) of conferences. Gender balance of specialist speakers varied, as does gender distribution within the specialties themselves. Only 38.5% (n = 5) of specialties had a specialist speaker gender balance representative of their speciality. Conclusion There is a call for further research to drive equity in the characteristics of invited speakers and to determine whether there is correlation with representation in the composition of conference organising committees, leadership, professional roles and the workforce. Conference organisers are encouraged to strive proactively and prospectively towards representative programmes.

Equally in person

“…This would suggest that the scientific quality of the work presented by women and men was equal, as demonstrated by equal male and female short oral presentations. 2 The above work was also supported by another paper by Heggie et al 3 This team looked at UK dental conferences for all the major societies, including BAOS. They denoted gender balance as being between 40 and 60% representation.…”

“…The above work was also supported by another paper by Heggie et al 3 This team looked at UK dental conferences for all the major societies, including BAOS. They denoted gender balance as being between 40 and 60% representation.…”

“…Oral surgery was deemed to have achieved gender parity, with 40% female speakers, which closely reflects the number of registrants in the United Kingdom for our specialty. 3 From this paper, it is clear some specialities are doing a great job at promoting gender equality, and others some way to go.…”

Dentistry and Gender Gap: An Overview of the Italian Situation

“…The gender gap in the leadership in dental medicine is also a matter of health [ 8 ]; indeed, it represents a limit to the progression of the professionals, inhibiting talented colleagues from accessing higher positions in the academic world. In addition, the lack of adequate role models to inspire the future generation does not benefit the oral care programs for the general population [ 9 ].…”

“…In the UK, for example, the Royal College of Surgeons of England hosted Women in Surgery (WinS), an initiative aimed to empower and inspire women in their career progression and, therefore, to promote a gender balance [ 8 ].…”