Gender of Award Recipients in Major Ophthalmology Societies

• Published in: American journal of ophthalmology Vol. 231; pp. 120 - 133
• Main Authors: Nguyen, Anne Xuan-Lan, Ratan, Sanyam, Biyani, Ankita, Trinh, Xuan-Vi, Saleh, Solin, Sun, Yang, Wu, Albert Y.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01-11-2021; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Annual meetings; Awards and Prizes; Bone surgery; Brochures; Careers; Child; Cornea; Female; Gender differences; Glaucoma; Head; Humans; Male; Medical personnel; Ophthalmology; Pediatrics; Retina; Retrospective Studies; Societies, Medical; United States; Web sites; Women; United States; United States > US
• ISSN: 0002-9394; 1879-1891
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ajo.2021.05.021

•This is the first study to assess the gender distribution of major ophthalmology society award recipients.•Women received 25.3% of the awards from major ophthalmology societies (1970-2020).•Positive women trends were observed in trainee (46%) and early-career (37%) awards.•Women are under-represented in achievement (22%) and service to society (16%) awards.•Women are under-represented in named lectures (11%) compared with other awards (28%).
To assess the gender distribution of major ophthalmology society award recipients
Retrospective, observational study
The study population included award recipients from 9 ophthalmologic societies: American Academy of Ophthalmology, American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, American Glaucoma Society, American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS), American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, American Society of Retina Specialists, American Uveitis Society, Cornea Society, and North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society. A gender-specific pronoun and a photograph of each award recipient were extracted from professional websites to assign their gender. Main outcome measures were gender distribution by award society, year (1970-2020), type (lectureship or not), category (achievement, education, research contribution, research item, international member achievement, public service–global health, service to society), and training level.
Out of 2,150 recipients for 78 awards, 1,606 (74.7%) were men and 544 (25.3%) were women. The proportion of women recipients increased from 0% in 1970 to 33.2% in 2020 (P < .001). Women representation varied within each society (P < .01), with ASCRS having the highest percentage (40.8%). Women received 11.0% of awards accompanied by a lecture. Women received a significantly greater proportion of research-related awards than achievement or service awards. Awards for trainees and early-career ophthalmologists had a greater proportion of women (39.8%) than the rest of the awards (21.5%) (P < .001).
Overall, women received awards (25.3%) at a higher rate than the average 1970-2020 American gender distributions of ophthalmologists. However, women are still under-represented in many award categories and subspecialties.