WOMEN REPRESENTATION IN PORTUGUESE SURGERY SOCIETY CONGRESS DURING THE LAST DECADE. WHAT’S TO BE EXPECTED?
Abstract
In Portugal, as more women enter into Medicine, increases the women representation in the most prestigious organizations and meetings of various medical specialties. In Portugal, the scientific meeting considered most important in General Surgery specialty is the National Surgery Congress, which takes place annually, organized by Portuguese Surgery Society. It was analyzed the women representation in this congress between 2010 and 2019. In a decade, the proportion of women surgeons ranged from 21% to 35% of all surgeons. During this time, they represent 20.7% of the invited congress panelists. Women represented 23.9% of participants in moderating free paper session of the congress and 27% of the monitors of pre-congress courses. In round tables and conferences, women´s participation was 17.5% as a panelist. Only 4 women chaired the round tables and conferences, which corresponded to 4.1% of all chairs. Comparing the first five years and the last five years, there was a statistically significant difference in global women participation (p<0.0001), in participation as moderator of free paper session (p<0.0001), in participation as moderator of round tables and conferences (p=0.0049), in participation as coordinator of pre-congress courses (p=0.0068) and in participation in pre-congress courses as monitor (p=0.0018). Minority female representation in the specialty and in this particular scientific event is confirmed. However, the most recent evolution suggests that the female representation in these scientific meetings will follow the demographic gender evolution in the General Surgery specialty.
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