Gender Distribution of Organizing Committees and Invited Speakers at the International Conferences on Emergency Medicine

Background It has been documented that women are under-represented as speakers at emergency medicine conferences globally. This lack of opportunity is likely contributing to the gender gap of women in academic and leadership positions. Methods The Gender-Specific Issues Special Interest Group (GSI-SIG) of the International Federation of Emergency Medicine (IFEM) has analyzed the gender distribution of invited speakers, plenary speakers, and organizing committees from its last three International Conferences on Emergency Medicine in 2016, 2018, and 2019. Results Men comprised 75% (range 57-92%) of organizing committees, 69% (67-70%) of plenary speakers, and 78% (range 75-81%) of invited speakers. Conclusion The percentage of women speakers at IFEM’s International Conferences on Emergency Medicine is low; even below the percentage of women emergency medicine physicians. By understanding these data and their consequences, changes can be made to close this gender gap and create more equitable opportunities for women and their career advancement. Strengths and Limitations of this study The gender breakdown of local organizing committee members and invited speakers at three consecutive International Conferences on Emergency Medicine heavily favoured men over women. Having women on the host country’s local organizing committee had no effect on the gender distribution of speakers. As these conferences draw speakers and participants from a diverse, international audience, the results are generalizable. The organizing committee and speakers’ backgrounds (MD, RN, paramedic) were not delineated, and may have skewed the results. Gender non-conforming individuals were not identified.