Abstract 17268: Gender Distribution Within Medicine and Cardiology Journal Editorial Boards

Abstract

Introduction: In the United States, 50% of medical students and over 40% of internal medicine (IM) residents are women. Despite a visible increase in representation of women in academics, studies have noted underrepresentation in academic leadership. Hypothesis: We sought to evaluate if women have near equal representation in editorial boards in major journals reflective of the proportion of women in Medicine. Methods: We evaluated two leading IM and Cardiology journals each to assess whether there was equity in representation of women in editorial roles. The editorial boards of these journals were reviewed as of April 2023. The gender distribution of editorial board members was displayed graphically using pie charts. The combined proportions of women in the two IM and Cardiology journals, respectively, were compared using Fisher’s exact test (Prism v9.5.1). Results: For the IM journals, the editorial board of Journal of the American Medicine Association was comprised of 18 women and 34 men (34.6% women) and the New England Journal of Medicine had 32 women and 44 men (42.2% women, Figure 1). For the Cardiology journals, the editorial board of Circulation was comprised of 90 women and 306 men (22.7% women) and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology had 46 women and 215 men (17.6% women, Figure 1). When comparing the combined proportions of women, the IM journals had a greater representation of women (39.1%) than the Cardiology journals (20.7%), p<0.0001. Conclusions: We observed that leading IM Journals have greater representation of women in editorial roles compared to Cardiology journals. This could be related to IM editorial boards drawing from a wider range of medical subspecialties, some of which may have greater representation of women. The ‘leaky pipeline’ in Cardiology may hinder gender-based parity at the highest academic ranks. Specific efforts to engage and mentor academic Cardiologists may help support diverse participation in editorial boards.