Gender Composition of Invited Speakers and Session Chairs at American Society for Apheresis Annual Meetings Between 2019 and 2024

Abstract

Disparities persist throughout medicine, including among conference speakership invitations. The National Institutes of Health have highlighted the importance of diversity at academic conferences. We assessed the gender composition of speakers at the American Society for Apheresis (ASFA) annual meeting. We assessed all session chairs and speakers at the annual ASFA meeting from 2019 to 2024. Two authors independently assessed individuals' genders. The primary outcome was the gender composition of all session chairs and speakers by position. Subset analyzes were performed to assess the gender composition of unique individuals (i.e., examining the total number of unique men and women, independent of the number of sessions at which they spoke) and by professional degree. 820 positions (665 speaker positions and 155 chair positions) were identified; women comprised significantly more positions than men [64.3%, 528/820 (95% CI 61.1%–67.6%) vs. 35.6% 292/820 (32.4%–38.9%); p < 0.0001]. 52.7% (432/820) of all session positions were held by physicians, with no significant difference in the gender composition [women 47.5%, 205/432 (42.8%–52.2%) vs. men 52.6%, 227/432 (47.8%–57.2%); p = 0.31]. When limited to unique physician individuals, women were significantly outnumbered by men [40.1%, 71/177 (33.2%–47.5%) vs. 59.9%, 106/177 (52.5%–66.8%); p = 0.01]. This analysis demonstrated mixed findings, with more women across all positions overall but significantly more men when limited to unique physicians. Diversity in conference positions begets a broader array of perspectives, knowledge, and expertise, and can aid in realizing greater diversity in related areas. Thus, academic conference diversity should be prioritized and thoughtfully pursued.