The Gender of COVID-19 Experts in Newspaper Articles: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Pre-existing gender-based disparities in academia may have worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is anecdotal and peer-reviewed evidence that women in academia have been underrepresented in prestigious, pandemic-related opportunities. Being citated as an expert source in newspaper articles about COVID-19 may increase an individual's research or leadership profile. In addition, visibility in a newspaper article is an important component of representation in academia. Objective: We sought to determine whether women were underrepresented as COVID-19 expert sources in print newspapers in the United States. Design: We undertook a cross-sectional study of English-language newspaper articles that addressed the COVID-19 pandemic that were published in the top ten most widely read newspapers in the United States between Apr 1 and Apr 15, 2020. Main Measures: We extracted the names of all people cited as expert sources and categorized each expert sources as men, women, or another gender based on pronoun usage within the article or on a business, university, or organization website. Key Results: Of 2,297 expert sources identified, 35.9% (95% CI 33.9-37.8%; n=824) were women, 63.7% were men (95% CI 61.8-65.7%; n=1,464) and for 0.4%, gender could not be assigned (n=9). After removing duplicate experts, 1,738 unique individuals were cited, of which 34.6% were women (95% CI 32.3-36.8%; n=601), 64.9% were men (95% CI 62.7-67.1%; n=1,128), and 0.05% whose gender was unknown (n=9). Of articles with multiple experts referenced (n=374), 102 cited only men experts (27.3%) and 44 cited only women experts (11.8%).Conclusions: Altogether, this result supports that men are overrepresented compared to women as COVID-19 experts in newspaper articles.