Disparate participation by gender of conference attendants in scientific discussions

Abstract

One important metric of a radiologist’s visibility and influence is their ability to participate in discussion within their community. The goal of our study was to compare the participation level of men and women in scientific discussions at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Eleven volunteers collected participation data by gender in 59 sessions (286 presentations) at the 2018 RSNA meeting. Data was analyzed using a combination of Chi-squared, paired Wilcoxon signed-rank and T-test. Of all RSNA professional attendees at the RSNA, 68% were men and 32% were women. Of the 2869 presentations listed in the program, 65% were presented by men and 35% were presented by women. Of the 286 presentations in our sample, 177 (61.8%) were presented by men and 109 (38.1%) were presented by women. Of these 286 presentations, 81 (63%) were moderated by men and 47 (37%) were moderated by women. From the audience, 190 male attendees participated in 134 question-and-answer (Q&A) sessions following presentations and 58 female attendees participated in 52 Q&A sessions (P<0.001). Female attendees who did participate in Q&A sessions talked for a significantly shorter period of time (mean 7.14 ± 17.7 seconds, median 0) compared to male attendees (28.7 ± 29.6 seconds, median 16; P<0.001). Overall, our findings demonstrate that women participated less than men in the Q&A sessions at RSNA 2018, and talked for a shorter period of time. The fact that women were outnumbered among their male peers may explain the difference in behavior by gender.

Towards equality: gender representation at the Royal College of Radiologists’ Annual Scientific Meeting 2014-2021

“…The proportion of women radiologists involved in conferences does not represent the population from which our profession is recruited or the patients we serve. The proportion of women involved in the RCRASM from 2014-2021 reflects that of RCR consultant membership (37%, 30 ), and is similar to the proportions of women presenters at the 2018 Radiological Society of North America conference (RSNA) (35% 31 ), and at the Association of University Radiologists' (AUR) and the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) conferences in 2009, 2014 and 2019 (39%, 32 ).…”

“…Previous studies have focused on a single year of a conference 31,45 , or focused on subgroups of conference presenters 45 or presenters only without assessing the gender balance of conference organising committees 19,31,32,40,45 . In contrast, our study makes use of eight years of data from the RCRASM, using information on presenters in all roles, and on the gender balance of the conference committees to give as complete a picture as possible of the patterns of involvement of women and men at all levels of the RCRASM, and to assess for changes in these patterns over recent years.…”

“…During AUR 2009, women gave significantly shorter (mean of 5.7 minutes) presentations and disproportionately fewer women than men gave presentations longer than 30 minutes, but this improved in subsequent years 32 . In RSNA 2018, women asked questions in only 24% of sessions and when they did participate, they spoke for a mean of 7 seconds, compared to 29 seconds for men 31 . Although our study does not capture such metrics of participation, doing so at future RCRASMs would round out our knowledge of the gender balance at the conference.…”

Participation during Deliberation as a Function of Individual Juror Traits: An Examination of the First Hypothesis of The Story Sampling Model from Devine (2012)’s Multi-Level Theory of Jury Decision Making

“…There has been some evidence that women talk less than men in social and professional groups (Holmes, 1992;Rezaee et al, 2022). Rezaee et al (2022), in an observational study conducted at a professional conference, investigated the relationship between gender and participation.…”

“…There has been some evidence that women talk less than men in social and professional groups (Holmes, 1992;Rezaee et al, 2022). Rezaee et al (2022), in an observational study conducted at a professional conference, investigated the relationship between gender and participation. The results indicated that during discussion after presentations, men participated with more frequency than women, and spoke for longer during their contributions.…”