Gender Representation on the National Otolaryngology Stage: Leadership Roles and Moderator-Panelist Trends at Recent Conferences.

Abstract

Academic meetings provide opportunities for collaboration and career advancement in the national spotlight. We sought to explore sponsorship opportunities by gender by investigating committee leadership, keynote speakership, and panelist-moderator ratios from prior American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) and Combined Otolaryngology Sections Meeting (COSM) conferences. Cross-sectional review of publicly available program conferencing. Literature review. Gender breakdowns of committee leadership and keynote speakerships were recorded from official AAO-HNS conference programming from 2013 to 2021. Panelist-moderator gender ratios were calculated for the AAO-HNS conferences from 2023 to 2024. Society leadership representation and panelist-moderator gender ratios were also investigated from recent COSM conferences between 2018 and 2024 via official programming. Between 2013 and 2021, analyses of the AAO-HNS national conferences determined that women comprised on average of 29.6% of annual directorship roles (range 12.5-37.55), 35.6% of board member positions (26.3%-47.4%), and 25.2% of keynote speaker appointments (0%-40%). Between 2019 and 2023, in COSM, women held on average 23.3% of available society chair/secretary positions and 19.0% of society president roles. The ratio of female:total panelist was positively correlated with female moderators. Female representation in AAO-HNS and COSM leadership and keynote speakerships has improved over time in recent years, and appears to be on par with academic otolaryngology workforce composition. However, male moderators presenting panels at both conferences had significantly fewer female panelists versus female moderators. This difference in national panel participation opportunities may impact career advancement and national reputation for female otolaryngologists.