Racial and Gender Representation Trends Among National Obstetrics and Gynecology Society Leadership.

STUDY OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study is to review the trends in racial and gender representation among the various national obstetrics and gynecology societies' presidents over the past 15 years.

DESIGN

A retrospective cross-sectional study.

SETTING

Data obtained from publicly available information on official websites of the professional societies studied.

PATIENTS

Presidents of national societies in obstetrics and gynecology.

INTERVENTIONS

The study was performed by obtaining publicly available data for past presidents from the official websites of the professional societies studied. Gender and race were inferred based on name and image. Racial classification was selected using the United States Census classification system. Educational background, residency training, and practice type were also collected. Assessment of 15-year trends was completed using linear regression analysis and differences in representation was assessed using analysis of variance and post hoc analysis.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

Over 15 years, there were 134 presidents elected for the 10 obstetrics and gynecology societies. Of those leaders, 85.2% were white, 8.2% Asian, and 5.2% black; 59% were men and 41% were women. During the study period, there was a significantly increasing slope for representation of women (+2.3% per year; 95% confidence interval, 0.4-4.2; p = .016). The representation of nonwhite presidents (+1.5% per year; 95% confidence interval, 0.2-2.8; p = .028) increased significantly during the same time period.

CONCLUSION

Over the last 15 years, less than 50% of obstetrics and gynecology national societies' presidents were women and most were of white race. However, there has been an increasing trend in the ratio of women to men and nonwhite to white representation among presidents of obstetrics and gynecology national societies.