Exploring women representation in major surgical society annual meetings in Italy

Gender diversity is increasing in medical schools and among physicians, including in surgical residency and among surgeons. However, leadership roles do not appear to be growing proportionately. To assess whether gender equality within the surgical community is improving, we analyzed gender representation in leading roles at two major events within the field in Italy in 2023. Of the 1,566 participants in leadership roles, 199 (12.71%) were women and 1,368 (87.29%) were men. Women consistently made up less than 25% of session invited speakers, with the highest representation in breast (23.5%), peritoneum (21.6%), endocrine (21.5%), and emergency (20.1%) sessions. Female speakers accounted for less than 10% of the presentations in bariatric, colon, esophageal, and stomach sessions. Moreover, women made up just 5.1% and 21% of scientific secretaries in the two conferences, respectively. Gender representation was found to be independently associated with conference participation (p < 0.001), role (p < 0.001), and topic (p < 0.001). The underrepresentation of women at major annual surgical society meetings in Italy reflects a larger issue of gender disparity within the surgical field. To prevent this gender gap from perpetuating into future generations, the surgical community must prioritize this issue. A shift is needed from simply "tolerating diversity" to actively recognizing and promoting its importance.