Objective: To further evaluate the academic representation of female urology residents in the United States, we reviewed abstracts from the Mid-Atlantic American Urological Association (MA-AUA) sectional meetings to determine if the recent increase in the number of female urology residents mirrored an increase in this group's abstract authorship.
Materials and methods: Full text abstracts from the MA-AUA meetings were analyzed from 2008 to 2014 excluding 1 joint section meeting. First-author gender was determined by querying publicly available institutional websites, social media platforms, and the U.S. News & World Report. First-author gender was indeterminable in 10 abstracts based on search criteria and these were excluded. Individual abstracts were broadly categorized based on keywords into 1 of several topics. Chi-square statistical tests examined the relationship between first-authorship gender, publication year, and abstract category.
Results: The number of female urology residents in the MA-AUA increased over the study period. A total of 484 abstracts were analyzed. Three hundred ninety-three abstracts (81%) included a male first-author, whereas 81 abstracts (17%) included a female first-author. Female first-authorship ranged from 13% to 25% annually. Comparison of male-to-female first-authorship was statistically significant in all years evaluated (P <.001). There was a statistically significant difference between male and female first-authorship in all topic categories (P <.01), except Education/Other (P = .56).
Conclusion: Despite continued gains and increasing female representation in urology, these data highlight significantly fewer female first-authors at the regional Mid-Atlantic section meetings. Larger studies are necessary to identify contributing factors and further areas for improvement toward decreasing gender imbalances within the academic community.
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