Global gender representation among presidents of cardiothoracic surgery societies.

OBJECTIVE

Females continue to be underrepresented in academia. An analysis of gender representation among presidents of cardiothoracic surgery societies worldwide was performed.

METHODS

A comprehensive search was performed to identify cardiothoracic surgical societies present worldwide and divided by regions. Respective Society's official webpage was searched to extract data on past and present presidents. Gender was determined and verified via publicly available online profiles. Proportions and respective 95 ​% confidence interval(CI) were calculated using Binomial exact calculation.

RESULTS

A total of 34 cardiothoracic surgery societies were identified globally, of which only 16 provided information on past presidents in the public domain. A total of 563 past and current society presidents were identified. Women constituted only 16 [2.84 ​%; 95 ​% confidence interval: 1.63 ​%; 4.57 ​%] presidents. The first-ever women president was appointed in the year 2007 by the STSA during the 54th Annual meeting.

CONCLUSION

Stark lag persists in gender representation of presidential roles among the cardiothoracic societies globally.