Gender Diversity in the AAPM Annual Meeting: A 2017 Benchmark Analysis of Speakers and Moderators.

Purpose: This study assesses gender composition among invitees at the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) annual meeting.

Methods and materials: A cross-sectional analysis was conducted using data from the 2017 AAPM Annual Meeting. Gender was determined using AAPM member public profiles and data. Statistical analysis of gender representation was performed using the Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon U test, with a p-value <0.05 considered significant. Speaker and moderator characteristics, including academic impact metrics (h-index, m-index, and publication history), were analyzed. Gender representation for 2012 and 2021 was also calculated to provide a comparative reference.

Results: In 2017, women comprised 25% of invited speakers and 19.9% of moderators, while AAPM membership was 23% women. A significant gender difference was observed in h-index values (median: men 18, women 13; p=0.003), but no significant differences were found in presenter evaluation scores. Only 30 states were represented among the invitees, highlighting the need for improved geographic diversity. As a secondary analysis, gender representation among invitees was found to have increased from 17% in 2012 to 25% in 2017 and 39% in 2021.

Conclusion: Gender disparities in speaker selection persisted at the 2017 AAPM Annual Meeting, with women underrepresented among both invited speakers and moderators relative to gender parity. While no gender-based differences were observed in presenter evaluations, disparities in academic impact metrics highlight structural challenges in achieving equal representation. These findings provide a baseline for evaluating future initiatives within AAPM, with secondary data suggesting positive trends over time.