Although there has been progress in recent years, women are significantly underrepresented among authors of academic anesthesiology articles, according to a recent study published in BMC Anesthesiology.
The authors examined 374,301 anesthesiology articles from 7,574 journals around the world that were published between 1987 and 2023 to determine how gender inequity in anesthesiology research has changed over time. Overall, the proportion of women authors increased more than 20 percentage points, rising from 13.6 percent in 1987 to 34.3 percent in 2023. The share of women in the first author position increased from 11.7 percent to 36.9 percent, while the share of women senior authors rose from 11.0 percent to 25.9 percent.
Only two countries have a share of women anesthesiology academic authors that is over 50 percent: Thailand and Portugal. Tunisia has experienced the highest average annual growth rate of women authors at 2.28 percent.
Despite this progress, the authors estimate that if current growth trends remain unchanged, overall gender parity in anesthesiology authorship will not be achieved until 2050. According to the research team, efforts at a country-specific level are needed to address women’s underrepresentation and foster a more inclusive community in academic anesthesiology.