More women are joining radiology journal editorial boards over time—but progress is slow
Female representation on the editorial boards of prominent radiology journals has increased over the last forty years, according to a new study published in Academic Radiology. But, the authors noted, that increase still falls behind progress seen in other areas, including female first authorship in radiology journals and radiology faculty appointments.
The authors, including lead author Crystal L. Piper, MD, MS, department of radiology at the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, tracked the editorial boards of four academic journals—Radiology, the American Journal of Roentgenology, Academic Radiology and the Journal of the American College of Radiology (JACR)—from 1973 to 2017. They collected data in five-year intervals and looked at the gender of the journals’ editors-in-chief for all years.
Overall, the number of women on editorial boards increased from just 1.4 percent in 1978 to more than 18 percent in 2013. None of the journals had a female editor-in-chief during that time.
Piper et al. added that 7.5 percent of the first authors in those journals were female in 1978. In 2013, that number was more than 27 percent. Meanwhile, the proportion of female faculty in radiology has increased from 11.5 percent in 1978 to more than 28 percent 35 years later.
“Our results support the presence of a relative glass ceiling in the track to become radiology journal editorial board members and editors-in-chief,” the authors wrote. “We found a balanced representation of women in JACR, which is the newest of all four general radiology journals and which uniquely focuses on health policy, education, and clinical practice management; however, it is important to note that we do not propose to know of any causation (directional or otherwise).”
More research is needed, the authors added, to learn more about why this “apparent gender gap” persists. “It is possible that these positions do not attract women,” they wrote. “However, the possibility of discrimination and bias against women in academic medicine has been supported by the literature.”
Michael has more than 18 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.