"Breaking Barriers": A decade of women's representation at the British Society of Interventional Radiology Meetings in the UK (2013-2022).

AIM: While the field of interventional radiology (IR) has seen significant advancements in recent years, there remains a stark gender gap within the subspeciality. The study aims to evaluate how the gender composition of the faculty at the UK's national IR scientific meeting has evolved over a decade.

MATERIAL AND

METHODS

A faculty list, including all speakers and moderators, of the British Society of Interventional Radiology Annual Scientific Meeting (BSIR ASM) from 2013 to 2022 was retrieved from program handbooks. The demographics of the faculty members and the organising committee (Scientific Programme Committee [SPC]) were obtained from institutional or personal professional websites. The primary aim of the study was to assess the percentage change of male versus female faculty at the BSIR ASM over this time.

RESULTS

The number of female faculty grew from 1 to 22 from 2013 to 2022, an increase from 5.9% to 30.8%. Notably, there was a drop in female faculty during the COVID-19 pandemic (27% in 2019 before the pandemic vs 22.8% in 2021). Trendlines fitted with and without data from the COVID-19 years are shown. Overall, there was a mean increase of 3% of female faculty at the ASM each year. The highest percentage of women in SPC was 50%.

CONCLUSION

Despite the continuing gender gap in IR trainee and consultant numbers, there has been a positive trend in female representation at the faculty level at this meeting over the decade. It is important to continue to address the factors which contribute to the gap and consider different ways of strengthening female recruitment and retention within IR.