A Critical Analysis of Gender and Racial Representation of Invited Speakers from the Aesthetic Society Meetings over a Five-Year Period

Goals/Purpose: The need for increased representation from both women and those with diverse ethnic backgrounds remains a topic of discussion within the plastic surgery community. The aim of this study was to determine whether these populations are receiving equal opportunities to participate in national conferences by evaluating the invited speakers from The Aesthetic Society’s annual meeting for five consecutive years. Academic productivity was compared between gender and ethnic subgroups to account for any differences in representation.

Methods/Technique: Documented speaker’s names, roles, and allotted time for presentation were extracted from publicly available, online meeting programs between the years 2017 and 2021. The gender, ethnicity, and academic productivity (H-index, number of published manuscripts, academic title) of each speaker was collected using doximity, scopus and institutional profiles. Differences in opportunities to present and academic credentials were then compared between both gender and ethnic groups over this five-year period. Significance was set at a P-value of less than 0.05.

Results/Complications: A total of 1,411 speaker positions were filled between 2017 and 2021. The proportion of speaker positions filled by women has trended upwards since 2017 (12%), with 30% of speakers being women in 2021. In 2021, men were significantly more likely to be panelists (p<0.047), possess an associate professor title (p<0.029), and have higher H-indexes (p<0.001) and numbers of manuscripts (p<0.030). However, there was no significant difference in time allotted for presentations. A quarter of speaker positions were filled with ethnic minorities in both 2020 and 2021. Racial minority speakers were more likely to possess an assistant professor title (p<0.020), with analysis yielding no differences in academic productivity despite having less years of experience (p <0.008).

Conclusion: Women and ethnic minority speakers are oftentimes as likely to hold certain presenter roles, with equal time allotment for presentations. However, these populations remain underrepresented overall as speakers during this annual national conference. Ethnic minorities had less years of experience, yet equivalent academic productivity to their counterparts, which might suggest the need for equal research output in a shorter amount of time in order to attain a speaker position. Equalizing representation of gender and race in academic meetings may be an important step in achieving a more diverse community of plastic surgeons for years to come.