Women's Performance in Conferences and Their Publications: A Critical Analysis

Abstract

Introduction Gender inequality occurs in all spheres of society, which is no different in the medical field. Abstract presentations in congress are the vanguard of scientific knowledge, an integral part of topic discussion, and, ideally, culminate in the publication of these works as complete manuscripts. Objective The objective of this study is to evaluate the role played by women in the presentation of scientific works at the Brazilian Society of Coloproctology congress and in the works published from these presentations. Methods The bibliometric evaluation of the presented abstracts in the editions from 2015 to 2018 of the Brazilian Congress of Coloproctology was used, along with the works later published from these presentations. Gender identification data was extracted from the authors of the abstracts through their names and research for conference on the Lattes and Google Scholar platforms. The collected data was on the number of female participants and their order of authorship of abstracts and publications, evaluating possible changes when publication occurs. Results A total of 1,336 abstracts were analyzed, with 91.6% of female authors. When publication occurs, women's presence dropped to 75.2% and suffered a change of order in the position of authorship to one of lesser relevance in 38.1%. Conclusion Women's participation occurs in most abstracts. However, this proportion undergoes unfavorable changes when these works are published, either by changing the order of authorship, when women leave main positions and become coauthors, or are removed from the complete manuscript's publication.