The following is a summary of “Trends in the proportion of women speakers at North American Allergy and Immunology conferences, 2008 to 2020,” published in the December 2023  issue of Allergy & Immunology by Hunt, et al.

In the field of medicine, women continue to be underrepresented in conferences for medical professionals. Previous research investigated the percentage of female speakers who were asked to talk across a variety of fields of study, as well as explored the variables that may have contributed to this gap. Numerous studies have failed to take into account the area of allergy and immunology, and the analyses have failed to demonstrate how the patterns have evolved over the course of the last 10 years. For a study, researchers sought to analyze the gender breakdown of invited speakers at the three most important allergy and immunology conferences in North America over time. For this retrospective longitudinal study, conference programs from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (AAAAI), the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (ACAAI), and the Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (CSACI) were used.  

These conference programs were conducted between 2008 and 2020. The gender of invited speakers was studied as the major result, with planning committee members and multispeaker sessions being evaluated as supplementary outcomes. The gender of invited speakers was determined using a binary definition, which is defined as either male or woman based on names, photographs, and pronouns included within conference programs and institutional profiles. A comparison was made between these statistics and data that is readily accessible to the public on the gender breakdown of workers in the specialty in both the United States.

Historically, the number of female presenters at conferences such as AAAAI, ACAAI, and CSACI has been lower than the number of male speakers, and they have been underrepresented in comparison to specialized composition. On the other hand, there has been a noteworthy rise in the percentage of female speakers over the course of time for each of the three conferences individually (AAAAI: 23.7% in 2008, 41.1% by 2020; ACAAI: 16.7% in 2008, 37.3% by 2020; CSACI: 19.4% in 2008, 54.8% by 2020; P <.001 for each) and collectively (21.3% in 2008, 40.7% by 2020, P <.001). This development correlated with a notable rise in the number of women serving on the organizing committee (for all conferences, the percentage ranges from 20% in 2008 to 50.6% by 2020; P <.001). In addition, there had been a general tendency toward fewer men-only multispeaker sessions throughout the course of time. The findings of the research provided light on the patterns of women speaker participation at allergy and immunology conferences and give clarity on the future demands to achieve equal representation in this profession.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1081120623012152