Gender and ethnic diversity in global ophthalmology and optometry association leadership: a time for change

Abstract

Purpose To assess the diversity of leadership bodies of member organisations of the International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO) and the World Council of Optometry (WCO) in terms of: (1) the proportion who are women in all world regions, and (2) the proportion who are ethnic minority women and men in Eurocentric high‐income regions. Methods We undertook a cross‐sectional study of board members and chairs of ICO and WCO member organisations using a desk‐based assessment of member organisation websites during February and March 2020. Gender and ethnicity of board members and chairs were collected using a combination of validated algorithmic software and manual assessment, based on names and photographs where available. Gender proportions were calculated across Global Burden of Disease super‐regions, and gender and ethnicity proportions in the high‐income regions of Australasia, North America and Western Europe. Results Globally, approximately one in three board members were women for both ICO (34%) and WCO (35%) members, and one in three ICO (32%) and one in five WCO (22%) chairpersons were women. Women held at least 50% of posts in only three of the 26 (12%) leadership structures assessed; these were based in Latin America and the Caribbean (59% of WCO board positions held by women, and 56% of WCO chairs), and Southeast Asia, East Asia and Oceania (55% of ICO chairs). In the Eurocentric high‐income regions, white men held more than half of all board (56%) and chair (58%) positions and white women held a further quarter of positions (26% of board and 27% of chair positions). Ethnic minority women held the fewest number of board (6%) and chair (7%) positions. Conclusions Improvements in gender parity are needed in member organisations of the WCO and ICO across all world regions. In high‐income regions, efforts to address inequity at the intersection of gender and ethnicity are also needed. Potential strategies to enable inclusive leadership must be centred on structurally enabled diversity and inclusion goals to support the professional progression of women, and people from ethnic minorities in global optometry and ophthalmology.

Interventions to promote access to eyecare for non-dominant ethnic groups in high-income countries: a scoping review

“…Programmes to enhance ethnic diversity in ophthalmology programmes 110 is an example of how institution-level changes could improve currently hard to address aspects of access. However, these programmes will take time to have an impact, as will the further steps of addressing poor representation in ophthalmology leadership, 111 and structural inequity more generally.…”

Seeing beyond 2020: what next for refractive error care?

“…Currently only 1 in 3 board members of member organisations of the International Council of Ophthalmology and the World Council of Optometry are women, falling to 1 in 17 being a woman from an ethnic minority. 30 Refractive error represents a large and growing problem, with pervasive inequity nationally and globally. We must develop and strengthen technology and treatments to ensure that all aspects of refractive error care are high quality, accessible, affordable and timely for all.…”

“…highlight that we have a long way to go to have leaders that reflect the gender‐ and ethnic‐diversity of the profession or the population. Currently only 1 in 3 board members of member organisations of the International Council of Ophthalmology and the World Council of Optometry are women, falling to 1 in 17 being a woman from an ethnic minority 30 …”

Gender and country of residence of presenters in the retinal field at global ophthalmology conferences

“…In the United States, the gender gap among presenters at ophthalmology conferences may be related to lack of diversity in the professional society leadership. 1 However, the gender and nationality of presenters at international conferences are not well-studied. To this end, we analyzed gender and country of residence among presenters at global ophthalmology conferences, focusing on the retinal field.…”

“…This suggests that the quality of research by presenters who were female or from lowerincome countries may have been similar or better, respectively, than their male and high-income country counterparts, although other factors such as the quality of the journals in which the research was published would need to be considered. Potential reasons for the selection disparity include female and low-income country ophthalmologists being younger, 2,3 underrepresented on ophthalmic professional society boards that may select conference organisers, 1 and/or being precluded from conference travel due to childcare or caretaker duties 4 ; they may also have less research experience 2,3 or-as a consequence of less research experience-less travel funding.…”