Quantifying gender disparity in physician authorship among commentary articles in three high-impact medical journals: an observational study

Abstract

BackgroundScholarship plays a direct role in career advancement, promotion and authoritative recognition, and women physicians remain under-represented as authors of original research articles.ObjectiveWe sought to determine if women physician authors are similarly under-represented in commentary articles within high-impact journals.Design/Setting/ParticipantsIn this observational study, we abstracted and analysed author information (gender and degree) and authorship position from commentary articles published in three high-impact journals between 1 January 2014 and 16 October 2018.Primary outcome measureAuthorship rate of commentary articles over a 5-year period by gender, degree, authorship position and journal.Secondary outcome measuresTo compare the proportion of men and women physician authorship of commentaries relative to the proportion of men and women physician faculty within academic medicine; and to examine the gender concordance among the last and first authors in articles with more than one author.ResultsOf the 2087 articles during the study period, 48% were men physician first authors compared with 17% women physician first authors (p<0.0001). Of the 1477 articles with more than one author, similar distributions were found with regard to last authors: 55% were men physicians compared with only 12% women physicians (p<0.0001). The proportion of women physician first authors increased over time; however, the proportion of women physician last authors remained stagnant. Women coauthored with women in the first and last authorship positions in 9% of articles. In contrast, women coauthored with men in the first and last author positions, respectively, in 55% of articles.ConclusionsWomen physician authors remain under-represented in commentary articles compared with men physician authors in the first and last author positions. Women also coauthored commentaries with other women in far fewer numbers.

Authorship diversity among systematic reviews in eyes and vision

“…[11][12][13] There is a substantial amount of literature to support that women are underrepresented in leadership positions in academia. 5,6,8,[19][20][21][22][23][24] This is independent of eld and has been documented even in elds which are predominantly comprised of women, such as pediatrics. 7 With regard to ophthalmology speci cally, our ndings are very similar to a recent study of multiple medical elds which found 36% of rst author (compared with our 37% of all, Cochrane and non-Cochrane, rst authors), and 24% of last author positions (compared with our 25% of all corresponding author positions which were most often last authors) to be held by women.…”

Authorship diversity among systematic reviews in eyes and vision

“…There is a substantial amount of literature to support that women are underrepresented in leadership positions in academia [5,6,8,[19][20][21][22][23][24]. This is independent of field and has been documented even in fields which are predominantly comprised of women, such as pediatrics [7].…”

Feminization of the Rheumatology Workforce: A Longitudinal Evaluation of Patient Volumes, Practice Sizes, and Physician Remuneration

“…Workforce disparities for women in rheumatology almost certainly play some role in physician burnout. Many female physicians also report encountering sex or gender-based discrimination in the workplace, and fewer females are represented in leadership and mentor positions (40)(41)(42)(43). On the other hand, the higher clinical activity of male rheumatologists may indicate that men are more likely to be the primary income earner in their household (44), placing higher demands on them to see more patients.…”