Gender gap disparities improving in retina subspecialty
Trends in first and last authorship of women within clinical retina research have improved over the last 25 years, according to a presentation at the Women in Ophthalmology Summer Symposium 2022.
In this cross-sectional study, a total of 4142 papers published between January 1t, 1995, and January 1, 2021 on the subject of “retina” were analyzed to determine the proportion of male and female first and last authors.
Over the 25-year study period, the percentage of women in first authorship positions significantly increased from 23% to 37.7% and the percentage in last authorship positions significantly increased from 14.2% to 24.6%. When the last authors were women, 32.5% of the first authors were women, and when the last authors were men, 27.1% of the first authors were women (P=0.002).
In 2020, 17% of practicing retina specialists in the United States were women, while 28.2% of the first authors and 22.3% of the last authors of retina publications from the United States were women.
Reference
Nahar A, Mahmoudzadeh R, Rama M, et al. Authorship Trends of Women in Retina: A 25-Year Analysis. Ophthalmol Retina. 2022;S2468-6530(22)00388-8. doi: 10.1016/j.oret.2022.08.012. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35973645.
