Gender and racial diversity among plenary session speakers at the Society of Abdominal Radiology Annual Meetings: a five-year assessment

Purpose To evaluate the gender and racial diversity of plenary session speakers in the annual meetings of Society of Abdominal Radiology (SAR) over 2016 to 2020. Materials and methods The brochures of the SAR annual meetings were reviewed for plenary session speakers and titles. Publicly available institutional profiles and social media were reviewed by the investigator in order to infer gender and race. Gender assessments were men, women, transgender men, transgender women or gender non-binary. Race was classified as White, Black or African American, American Indians and Alaskan Natives, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander and Multiracial. Statistical analysis was performed using chi square and T -tests. Results Based on self-reported data, the SAR has 64% male and 36% female members. Over 2016–2020, plenary session speakers were more likely to be men [69.6% (183/263)] than women [30.4% (80/263)] ( p -value = 0.0007). No speakers could be reliably identified as transgender, gender non-binary or gender expansive. In 2016, there were 24% women plenary speakers. This proportion was 28% in 2017, 33% in 2018 and 36% in 2019, and 30% in 2020. When assessing racial distribution, white speakers accounted for the majority of plenary speakers, ranging from 61 to 78%. Asians speakers accounted for 22 to 35%. There were no Black and African American, American Indian & Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander plenary speakers (0%). Multiracial speakers were represented from 2018 to 2020, accounting for 2–4% speakers ( p -value < 0.0001). Conclusions Plenary speakers at SAR Annual Meetings from 2016–2020 were more likely to be men, but with the proportion of women presenters increasing over time. White speakers represented the majority of plenary session speakers, followed by Asians. No plenary session speakers were identified as Black or African American or Native Americans. Graphical Abstract