Gender distribution of speakers and moderators at the Russian cancer congresses in 2016-2021.

Abstract

e18516 Background: Gender equity in world medicine has recently received widespread attention. There is evidence that men and women may practice medicine differently, and better women representation in the oncology workforce and leadership may improve patient outcomes. Nevertheless, women continue to be under-represented in the big academic events, also in oncology. Methods: A retrospective analysis of the programs of major annual Russian oncological congresses: Russian Oncology Congress and White Nights was carried out. The gender of speakers and moderators was collected from 2016 to 2021. Participation of the same person in several sessions or in different roles in one session was considered as a separate case. Data are presented by descriptive statistics, and differences between groups were assessed using the Сhi-square test. P-values below 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: The data of 1350 sessions, 796 moderators and 1756 speakers were available for analysis. For the analyzed period of time (2016-2021), the total percentage of female speakers was 42.2% (n = 3120), the percentage of female moderators was 34.8% (n = 1196). There were more male speakers than female speakers in surgical sessions (87.9% and 12.1% p < 0.001). There were more male moderators than women in surgical sessions (92.4% and 7.6% p < 0.001). There were more male speakers than female speakers in chemotherapy sessions (55.2% and 44.8% p < 0.001). There were more male moderators than women in chemotherapy sessions (58.9% and 41.1% p < 0.001). Conclusions: The gender inequality in oncology is more pronounced in the leadership positions in male-dominated specialties such as surgical oncology. Better women representation in the oncology leadership may be an effective strategy to improve oncology care in Russia