Women and Men Were Proportionally Represented Among Speakers at Major National Neurology Conferences in 2017

Abstract

ObjectiveTo determine whether speaking roles at five major neurology conferences in 2017 show disproportionate representation by men. MethodsThis study consisted of two cross-sectional analyses. In the first part, we compared speaker characteristics across meetings and by gender using descriptive statistics. In the second part, we linked presenters to the American Medical Association (AMA) Masterfile. For the primary analysis in the second part using linked AMA speaker data, we built models to estimate the influence of gender on speaker roles. Results1493 speakers were identified and included in our cross-sectional analysis. Women made up 28% of presenters from the US and 18% of presenters from other countries. After adjusting for years from medical school graduation and subspecialty, no effect of gender on speaker activity was observed (odds ratio [OR] for women 0.91; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.77-1.07). ConclusionsFactors aside from national conference speaking activity should be investigated to better understand sex differences in rank at top-ranked academic neurology programs.