0362 Women are Underrepresented in Major US Sleep Societies Recognition Awards

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Recognition awards are reflective of personal achievement and contribute to professional growth and academic promotion. Underrepresentation of women in recognition awards of various medical societies has been described. The Wayne A. Hening Sleep Medicine Investigator Award of the American Academy of Neurology was only given to two women since 2011. This finding prompted us to further investigate the gender distribution of major recognition awards in national US sleep societies. Methods Publicly available lists of recognition awards recipients were retrieved and analyzed from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) and the Sleep Research Society (SRS) websites. Recognition awards that reflect major contribution to the sleep field were included. The primary outcome measures were the overall proportion of women award recipients across selected recognition awards and the trend over time (1981-2019) analyzed by decade using the Cochran-Armitage test. Results We identified seven major sleep recognition awards (four by the AASM and three by the SRS) with a wide variation in the proportion of awards presented to women (4.8% to 31.3%). There were overall 184 individual awards presented by the two US sleep societies, including 154 (83.7%) awarded for men and 30 (16.3%) awarded for women. The analysis of the awards over time by decade revealed a significant increasing trend (P < 0.0001) in the proportion of awards recognizing women relative to men with a progression from 0.0% in the 1980s, to 3.0% in the 1990s, to 14.3% in the 2000s, and to 27.0% in the 2010s. Conclusion Overall in the last four decades, women have been underrepresented among major recognition awards from the AASM and the SRS, but it is encouraging to see a reduction in the gender gap, particularly over the last ten years. The reasons behind gender inequality in sleep recognition awards are unclear and need further investigation. Support This study was not funded.