Trends of female representation in ASCO leadership and abstracts authorship: A detailed review.

Abstract

e23010 Background: Gender inequalities in medicine are ongoing challenges facing health care providers in different fields. Gender bias in medicine is gaining more attention, raising the awareness of this important topic. Per ASCO 2022 snapshot, females represent 35.8% of total oncologists in the United States. This study aims to spot the light on female representation in ASCO abstracts authors and presidents, adding to the continuous efforts aiming to achieve gender equity in the oncology practice. Methods: Data from the ASCO database and conference materials was gathered for analysis in the different categories. These categories included presidents of ASCO since it was founded in 1964 through 2022, and first authors in abstracts accepted over the past 5 years (2018-2022). Statistical analyses on first authors data were conducted, and a P-value of < 0.001 was deemed to be statistically significant. Results: In the 58-year period (1964-2022), ASCO had 49 men (85%) and 9 women (15%) serve as presidents. 7 out of 9 total female presidents were elected in the last 20 years. In the 5 year period (2018-2022), there was a significant increase in the percentage of abstracts accepted for a female author. 37.1% of the presenters in 2018 were females, compared to 41.4% in 2022, with statistically significant results (P value < 0.001), detailed percentages are shown in tables. Conclusions: Gender gap in the field of oncology goes beyond pay differences to include leadership positions and research authorship. But as shown by our analysis, there has been an increase in representation of females in ASCO abstracts authorship and leadership over the past years. Nonetheless, further work is needed to identify factors contributing to lower representation of women in oncology, and suggested solutions. [Table: see text][Table: see text]