Closing the Gender Gap Among Canadian Ophthalmology Societies

Objective: To evaluate gender distribution in Canadian ophthalmology societies' leadership and to determine associations between gender, academic productivity, and institutional rank. Methods: We identified members and assessed their gender composition using publicly available updated webpages. SCOPUS database was used to gather research metrics. Results: In this study, data was collected from 12 Canadian ophthalmology societies, which included 277 executive committee members. Of these, 70.5% (196) were male and 29.1% (81) were female (p <.0001). Males were significantly more prevalent in presidential leadership roles (39 males vs. 23 females, p =.02), while females were more represented in other leadership categories (77 females vs. 61 males, p =.03). The Canadian Ophthalmological Society (COS) showed an upward trend in female representation from 19.2% in 2016 to 42.3% in 2021. Research productivity showed a positive correlation with society leadership rank, with a correlation coefficient of 0.732 for the m-index (p <.001) and 0.356 for the h-index (p <.05). Academic rank was also positively correlated with society leadership rank, with a correlation coefficient of 0.536 (p <.001). There was no significant difference in h-index (12.7 +/- 1.0 for males vs. 13.8 +/- 1.5 for females, p =.85) or number of publications (48.6 +/- 5.1 for males vs. 60.0 +/- 11.3 for females, p =.83) between male and female executive members, but females had a higher m-index (0.67 +/- 0.05) compared to males (0.58 +/- 0.03, p <.05). In academic rank, males were more likely to be associate professors (25% vs. 5% for females, p =.0001) or instructors (14.8% vs. 6.3% for females, p =.05), while a higher proportion of females held assistant professor positions (47.5% for females vs. 30.1% for males, p =.006). Conclusion: In this study, we found that males were more prevalent in executive positions, particularly in presidential roles among Canadian ophthalmology societies. The gender distribution in leadership reflected the gender composition of practicing ophthalmologists in Canada. There was a positive correlation between research productivity and society rank, as well as academic position and society rank. Male and female executive members had similar h-index and number of publications, but females had a higher m-index. These findings highlight the need for continued efforts to address gender disparities in ophthalmology leadership.