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Has Breast Surgery Shattered the Glass Ceiling? Trends in Female Representation at The American Society of Breast Surgeons Annual Meeting 2009–2019

  • Breast Oncology
  • Published:
Annals of Surgical Oncology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Our study sought to evaluate gender representation and the impact of gender on the large volume of research presented at The American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBrS) Annual Meeting, the largest breast surgery meeting in the United States.

Methods

Publicly available ASBrS meeting programs and proceedings from 2009 to 2019 were reviewed to ascertain proportions of female engagement in society positions, contributions to scientific sessions, and subsequent manuscript publications. Trend analyses for temporal changes in gender representation and univariate tests of associations between authorship gender and publication success were performed.

Results

Women comprised 44.8% of members of the board of directors, 41.7% of committee chairs, and 54.8% of committee members. There were significant annual increased proportions of female committee members (3.2% per year, p = 0.01) and chairs (6.0% per year, p = 0.03). Women represented > 50% of all speakership positions, except keynote (42.2%). For oral, quickshot, and poster scientific presentations, > 70% of first authors and > 60% of senior authors were women. The meeting-related publication rate with female senior authorship was higher than that with male senior authorship (41.0% vs. 36.3%, p = 0.04).

Conclusions

Although female surgeons remain a minority at most conferences, women have represented the majority of participants in committees, speakership, and scientific presentations at the ASBrS Annual Meeting over the past 10 years. The glass ceiling in breast surgery has been shattered, but efforts to improve gender equity must continue, not only in breast surgery, but all surgical specialties.

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Acknowledgements

The authors report no funding source for this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Jenny H. Chang MD

  2. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Aida Abou-Zamzam BA

  3. Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, CA, USA

    Sarah Lee MD, Hannah Choi BS, Sarah Lee BS, Luis Olmedo BS & Sharon S. Lum MD

  4. School of Medicine, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA

    Nikita Kadakia BS, Laurel Nelms BS, Cyrus Nguyen BA & Sharon S. Lum MD

Authors
  1. Jenny H. Chang MD
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  2. Aida Abou-Zamzam BA
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  3. Sarah Lee MD
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  4. Hannah Choi BS
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  5. Nikita Kadakia BS
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  6. Sarah Lee BS
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  7. Luis Olmedo BS
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  8. Laurel Nelms BS
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  9. Cyrus Nguyen BA
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  10. Sharon S. Lum MD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sharon S. Lum MD.

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Chang, J.H., Abou-Zamzam, A., Lee, S. et al. Has Breast Surgery Shattered the Glass Ceiling? Trends in Female Representation at The American Society of Breast Surgeons Annual Meeting 2009–2019. Ann Surg Oncol 27, 4662–4668 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-020-08899-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-020-08899-4

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