Gender Disparities in Presentations at the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) Meetings From 2014 to 2019

Background Participation in surgical society meetings serves as a proxy for academic success and is important for career development. This study aimed to investigate and report the gender breakdown of presenters at recent Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) meetings. Methods Genders of presenters for poster, parallel, plenary, and video sessions at SSO meetings from 2014 through 2019 were collected. These data were broken down to first–last authorship relationships including female–female, female–male, male–female, and male–male. The proportions of female-to-male presenters were compared for each session type. Statistical significance was set at p value lower than 0.05. Results From 2014 through 2019, the SSO had 2920 presenters, and 47% were female. Women were listed as first authors more often for the poster session (48%) than for other sessions (parallel, plenary, and video) ( p = 0.003). Women also were listed more often as senior authors for the poster session (31%) than for other sessions ( p = 0.004). Female senior authors were fewer than male senior authors across all session types. Female first authors had the highest representation in breast (75%), endocrine (48%), and cutaneous (46%) specialties ( p < 0.001). The most common combination of first and senior authors was male–male (43%), followed by female–male (28%), female–female (19%), and male–female (10%). Conclusion Overall, female presentation at SSO is comparable with society demographics, and female first authorship is relatively equal to male first authorship in poster sessions. Whereas female first authorship improved over time, female senior authorship remained relatively flat. Opportunities to improve gender equality in senior authorship positions should be explored.