0085: Closing the Gender Gap in Global Rheumatology Leadership- Are We There Yet?

Tayyeba Khursheed¹, Pavel Ovseiko², Ghita Harifi³, Humeira Badsha⁴, Harish G Shekar⁵ and Latika Gupta⁶, ¹Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad, Pakistan, ²John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, ³Department of Rheumatology, Mediclinic Parkview Hospital, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, ⁴Dr. Humeira Badsha Medical Center, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, ⁵Rajarajeswari medical College and hospital, Bangalore, India, ⁶Royal Wolverhampton Trust, Wolverhampton/University of Manchester, United Kingdom

Background/Purpose: The gender equity in academic rheumatology initiative has sparked discussions on the effect of inequity in academia on assignment to leadership roles. To explore whether a gender gap exists in the global rheumatology leadership, we undertook a cross-sectional review of gender representation among the presidents of regional leagues, and national organizations in Asia-Pacific.

Methods: The names and terms in office of current and past presidents, of 5 regional rheumatology leagues and 19 national rheumatology organizations were obtained from the official website of each organization. The binary gender of each president was estimated using the name-to-gender inference platform Gender-API. Proportions of male and female presidents were determined for each organization and compared for presidencies commencing before and in/after the year 2000. Differences in female representation over time were tested using Fisher's exact test.

Results: The overwhelming majority of all the past and current presidents of regional rheumatology leagues (94%) and national rheumatology organizations were men (83%) (Table 1,2). 2/5 of regional rheumatology leagues and 7/19 of national rheumatology organizations had all-male presidents (Table 1,2). The proportion of female presidents increased in many leagues in/after the year 2000. However, the results were significant only for the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), and the 19 rheumatology organizations from Asia-Pacific when analyzed as a whole. (Table 3).

Conclusion: A gender gap in leadership seems to be prevalent in rheumatology globally, although trends indicate improvement in some regions in the past 2 decades. Regional rheumatology leagues and organizations should step forward to promote gender equity and overcome disparities.
Table 1. Number and proportion of male and female presidents in the regional rheumatology leagues.

Table 2: Number and proportion of male and female presidents in the national rheumatology organizations from the Asia-Pacific

Table 3: Estimated gender representation among the global rheumatology leadership by the organization and presidential terms in office commencing before and in/after 2000
Disclosures: T. Khursheed, None; P. Ovseiko, None; G. Harifi, None; H. Badsha, None; H. Shekar, None; L. Gupta, None.