Recent Trends of “Manels” and Gender Representation among Panelists at North American Annual Radiation Oncology Meetings

Purpose/Objective(s)

Underrepresentation of women in academic medicine has been a longstanding issue. While there has been an increase in the fraction of women in medical school and residency programs, this has not translated to female representation in national and international conferences across many medical specialties, with continued presence of all-male speaking panels or "manels". The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and the Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology (CARO) host two large annual radiation oncology conferences. We aimed to assess the prevalence and longitudinal trends of manels and gender representation at these meetings during 2018-2021. We hypothesized that both conferences would have a decrease in manels and increased representation of female panelists over time

Materials/Methods

Using ASTRO and CARO online programs, 2018-2021 faculty information was obtained. Data collected included perceived or self-reported gender, panel role (chair vs. non-chair), type of session, and topic. Primary outcomes included percentage of manels and proportion of female panelists over time. Female representation among chairs, and topics were also evaluated.

Results

During 2018-2021, across both conferences there were a total of 905 sessions with 3,061 faculty members, of which 1,338 (44%) were females, and 222 (25%) panel sessions were manels. At ASTRO meetings, with a total of 2,825 faculty members and 815 sessions, 1223 (43%) were females and 199 (24%) panel sessions were manels, with similar results seen at CARO meeting, with a total of 236 faculty members and 90 sessions, 115 (49%) were females and 23 (26%) panel sessions were manels. Over time, there was a significant decrease in the proportion of manels, at ASTRO from 38% in 2018 to 12% in 2021 (p<0.001) with a corresponding increase in proportion of female panelists from 38% to 48% (p=0.01). At CARO, the proportion of manels decreased from 29% in 2018 to 18% in 2021 (p=0.2), and the proportion of female panelists increased from 40% to 61% (p=0.005). The role of chair was majority male in every year from 2018 to 2021 at ASTRO (56% overall) and CARO (74% overall). Among session type, the highest proportion of manels was observed for leadership sessions (37%, p=0.3) at ASTRO and for educational and scientific sessions (27%, p=0.003) at CARO. The lowest proportion of female panelists were on the topics of genitourinary cancers (34%, p=0.034) at ASTRO and genitourinary cancers and physics (33%, p=0.038) at CARO.

Conclusion

Overall, at both ASTRO and CARO conferences the proportion of manels has decreased over time and both have seen an increase in the number of female panelists. However, there are specific topics/specialties where females remain particularly underrepresented. ASTRO and CARO should strive to further increase female involvement reflective of the expertise and representation in the field, and consider eliminating manels altogether.