Representation of women amongst speakers at the Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society annual meeting: a retrospective analysis from 2007 to 2019.

PURPOSE: Despite an increase in the proportion of women entering the field of anesthesiology, women remain underrepresented in academic and leadership positions. Speaking at national and international conferences is an important component of academic visibility and promotion. To date, the gender representation of speakers at the Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society (CAS) annual meeting has not been examined.

METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of the representation of women amongst speakers at the CAS annual meeting between 2007 and 2019, inclusively. We also examined the representation of women in different subspecialty subject area symposia at each CAS annual meeting, and the gender composition of meeting symposia panels (i.e., groups of two or more speakers in a session) at the meeting.

RESULTS: Overall, 28.5% (358/1,256) of speaker slots included women, similar to their representation in Canadian clinical anesthesiology over the study period (26.7%), and increasing significantly over the study period. Women were more highly represented as obstetric anesthesia speakers at the CAS annual meetings, with lower representation in cardiothoracic anesthesia, transplant anesthesia, and critical care symposia. Of the 311 meeting symposia, 146 (46%) were composed of all men speakers.

CONCLUSION: The representation of women speakers at the CAS annual meeting was similar to the representation of women in the anesthesiology workforce in Canada over the study period. Gender representation varied widely by subspecialty symposia, subject area, and women were absent from nearly half of all symposia at the CAS annual meetings, which are potential areas of future investigation and intervention.