16 - Demographic Trends in Gender Disparities Across the Field of Pediatric Emergency Medicine from 2000-2020

Poster Number: 16
Publication Number: 16.405

Jehanzeb Kayani, Yale School of Medicine, Orange, CT, United States; Jennifer L. Reed, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Cincinnati, OH, United States; Basmah Safdar, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, United States; Melissa L. Langhan, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, United States

Background:
Women now compromise a majority of medical students but remain underrepresented across all levels in academic medicine. Pediatrics is among the specialties where women make up a majority of residents and active physicians. We assessed whether gender disparities exist within pediatric subspecialities, including Pediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM), in institutional and national leadership positions.

Objective:
To characterize gender disparities within PEM at the levels of board-certified PEM physicians, fellow, institutional leadership [fellowship program directors (PDs) associate PDs (APDs)], and national PEM leadership positions. Additionally, we sought to compare changes over time.

Design/Methods:
Publicly available data was collected for the years 2000-2020 when available. This included summative data by gender on certified PEM physicians and fellows, and individual listings of PDs, APDs, and national committee leaders. We performed a systematic online search for individuals to categorize gender from reported self-identification when available and otherwise via observation of faculty profile pictures. Univariate analysis using Poisson regression assessed for the change in the proportion of females over time.

Results:
From 2011-2020, the percentage of board-certified women in PEM increased significantly from 50% (712/1413) to 59% (1420/2429) [coefficient=0.018, 95% CI: 0.015-0.021, p< .001]. Between 2000-2019, the percentage of women in PEM fellowship also increased significantly from 51% (109/214) to 68% (377/558) [coefficient=0.020, 95% CI: 0.157-0.024, p< .001)]. The percentage of women who are PDs in PEM increased from 45% (35/78) to 59% (51/86) whereas women APDs decreased slightly from 76% (25/33) to 70% (43/61). On a national level, between 2000-2020, the percentage of women represented on a national committee increased from 33% (3/9) to 46% (13/28). For every increase in year there was >3% increase in the proportion of women PDs (coefficient=0.033, 95% CI: 0.026-0.412, p< .001), which was disproportionately higher than a 1.7% increase in proportion of women on a national committee (coefficient=0.017, 95% CI: 0.005-0.290, p=.005). Among APDs, there was no significant change (coefficient=.001, 95% CI: -0.027-0.300, p=.908).
Conclusion(s):
Since 2000 the proportion of women who are certified PEM physicians or fellows has increased. While women PEM faculty lead two-thirds of institutional educational leadership positions, they hold less than half of national committee leadership positions. More work is needed to close the gender gap at a national level.

Trends in Gender Across Pediatric Emergency Medicine between 2000-2020