Participation of women surgeons at SAGES over time: is the glass ceiling shattered?

Gregory S Peirce, MD, Hind Al-Lami, MBChB, MPH, Jennifer Yonkus, MD, Todd Kellogg, MD, Juliane Bingener, MD. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN

Introduction: Diversity is regarded as a valuable asset across surgical societies, leading to increased membership.  In recent years, SAGES leadership has implemented initiatives to increase diversity at many levels. As the proportion of women residents entering surgery has increased, we evaluated if the initiatives resulted in an increase in women surgeon participation as presenters and session moderators at the annual meeting of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES).

Methods: We collected data by meetings’ sessions from 5 published annual meeting programs of SAGES between the years of 2002 and 2018. The gender of the participants was determined based on their first name. For unfamiliar or equivocal names we used online information from the participant’s institution to determine the gender. We excluded sessions where the gender of at least one participant could not be determined. JMP PRO was used for linear regression analysis.

Results: A total of 291 sessions were included in the analysis. The number of included sessions increased from  21 sessions in 2002, to 87 sessions in 2018 (table 1). In 2002 the program listed 18 women (14%) presenters and three women session moderators (7%) across all sessions. By 2018, the program reflected 156 women presenters (24%) and 60 women moderators (30%). Presenters and moderators significantly increased by about 1 %/year on average; presenters by 0.99% (95% CI=0.6%-1.4%) and moderators by more than 1% (95% CI=0.4%-1.6%).

Conclusion: Women participation as both presenters and chairs at SAGES has increased significantly over the past 16 years, likely representing both an increased number of women surgeons nationwide and the success of leadership initiatives.  Whether the same is true for the entire diversity spectrum needs to be further evaluated.

Presented at the SAGES 2017 Annual Meeting in Houston, TX.

Abstract ID: 94716

Program Number: S103

Presentation Session: Diversity

Presentation Type: Podium