Hi, my name is Gabby, and I am a third-year medical student at Washington University in St. Louis. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak to you all virtually about the representation of women in the AANS, CNS, Pediatric section and annual meetings. I have no disclosures. Female medical students now comprise over half of matriculating medical students, with women comprising about 36% of attending physicians. However, only about 8% of attending neurosurgeons are women. It's a known fact that women are underrepresented in the field of neurosurgery. The field has recognized the need for continued work in diversity and has worked to expand gender diversity through various efforts with success. The number of attending female neurosurgeons has increased from 5.6% in 2007 to 8.4% in 2018, and the number of female residents and fellows has increased from 11.3% in 2007 to 17.7% in 2018. Despite the gradual increase in the representation of women in the field of neurosurgery, the representation of these women in neurosurgical conferences as speakers, authors, leaders, and award winners has not been extensively studied. The objective of this study was to assess gender representation of leadership in the AANS, CNS, Pediatric section, as well as speakers, authorships, and awards at the annual meetings. In our study, we looked at the proportion of females as conference speakers and abstract authors at the section meetings from 2015 to 2019. We classified subjects as MD-equivalent, PhD-only, and other, further classifying MD-equivalents as neurosurgeons or non-neurosurgeons. Neurosurgeons included residents and fellows in neurosurgical residency and fellowship programs in addition to neurosurgery attending physicians. Speakers were divided into plenary speakers, invited speakers to name lectureships, and other lecture speakers. We also assessed the proportion of current female section members, section chairs, and award winners over the history of the section. Overall, female neurosurgeons comprise 22% of active section members. In the history of the section, 10.7% of section chairs have been female. Female neurosurgeons were granted 20.4% of all awards granted over the history of the section, though no female has ever won the Frank Ingram Award nor the AAP Soans Award. From the years 2015 to 2019, 14.3% of section meeting chairs were female. 26.1% of abstract first authors were female neurosurgeons, with only 13.7% of last authors being female neurosurgeons. Female neurosurgeons represented 12.5% of invited plenary speakers and 9.5% of other lecture and talk speakers. Female neurosurgeons comprise 29.5% of moderators over this time course and 11.5% of panelists. Although females only comprise about 8% of neurosurgeons overall, pediatrics as a subspecialty demonstrates increased gender diversity, with 22% of active members being female neurosurgeons. This increased diversity is reflected across society membership, first authorship, research award grantees, and moderators, all of which were at least 22% female neurosurgeons over the time frame studied. However, there remains disproportionate underrepresentation of women as achievement award winners, 0%, section chairs, 10.4%, meeting chairs, 14.3%, plenary speakers, 12.5%, last authors, 13.7%, and panelists, 11.5%. While there have been large improvements in the representation of women in pediatric neurosurgery, more work has yet to be done. Thank you.

Gabby

women in neurosurgery

underrepresentation

neurosurgical conferences

gender representation