Representation of Female Speakers at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meetings Over Time.

Abstract

Background

In the United States, women comprise 16% of orthopaedic surgery residents, 4% of fellows, and 6% of practicing orthopaedic surgeons. The underrepresentation of women in surgical subspecialties may be because of lack of early exposure to female mentors. Conference speaker roles are important for visibility. This study aims to evaluate the representation of women in speaker roles and responsibilities at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) meetings over time.

Methods

The names of speakers and session titles at the annual AAOS meetings were obtained from conference programs for the years 2009, 2014, and 2019. Each speaker was classified based on sex and role. Sessions discussing scientific or surgical topics were classified as technical and those that did not were classified as nontechnical. Descriptive statistics are provided, as well as individual-year odds ratios (ORs) and confidence intervals (CIs) examining sex versus technical session status and sex versus speaker role; combined results controlling for year are calculated using the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel method.

Results

Overall, 3,980 speaking sessions were analyzed; 6.8% of speaking sessions were assigned to women. Women were more likely than men to participate in nontechnical speaking roles (OR 3.85; 95% CI, 2.79 to 4.78). Among talks given by women, the percentage that were nontechnical increased (25.5% in 2009, 24.3% in 2014, and 44.1% in 2019). Among moderator roles, the percentage assigned to women increased (4.5% in 2009, 6.0% in 2014, 14.5% in 2019).

Discussion

Our findings demonstrate an increase in female speakers at AAOS meetings from 2009 to 2019. The percentage of female moderators and nontechnical sessions given by women increased since 2009. A need for a shift in the distribution of speaker role exists, which promotes inclusivity and prevents professional marginalization. Representation of women as role models increases visibility and may address the leaky pipeline phenomenon and paucity of women in orthopaedics.

Department

Description

Provenance

Citation

Published Version (Please cite this version)

10.5435/jaaos-d-22-00615

Publication Info

Nwosu, Chinemerem, Jocelyn R Wittstein, Melissa M Erickson, Nicole Schroeder, Lauren Santiesteban, Christopher Klifto, Yue Jiang, Lauren Shapiro, et al. (2023). Representation of Female Speakers at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meetings Over Time. The Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 31(6). pp. 283–291. 10.5435/jaaos-d-22-00615 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/31371.

This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.

Scholars@Duke

Wittstein

Jocelyn Ross Wittstein

Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery
Erickson

Melissa Maria Erickson

Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery

I am a spine surgeon who provides surgical management of cervical, thoracic  and lumbar spine conditions, including cervical myelopathy, herniated discs, deformity, stenosis, tumor and trauma.  I provide both minimally invasive procedures as well as traditional surgical techniques.

Christopher Scott Klifto

Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery
Jiang

Yue Jiang

Assistant Professor of the Practice of Statistical Science

Yue Jiang is an Assistant Professor of the Practice of Statistical Science and QuadEx Faculty Fellow at Duke University. His applied research collaborations broadly deal with health outcomes research in gastroenterology and hepatology, particularly among inflammatory bowel disease patients, cirrhosis patients, and in solid organ transplant, and methodological research focusing on developing effect size measures for mediation analysis in complex data settings. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Liver Transplantation, and additionally provides statistical support to three large, multi-site longitudinal cohort studies of IBD patients.

Yue is passionate about statistical education and quantitative literacy and often mentors undergraduate students in research projects; students he has taught or mentored frequently win nationally-competitive statistics paper competitions. He is particularly interested in the formal teaching and incorporation of formal peer review in undergraduate statistics education, and is the 2021-2022 recipient of the Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award, a student-selected and student-nominated award that honors excellence in teaching and advising of undergraduate students. Finally, Yue is Co-Director of the Medical Statistics module for third year medical students at Duke University Medical Center and co-wrote the case-study-based curriculum alongside clinical partners


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