Women in the European Stroke Organisation: one, two, many… – A Top Down and Bottom Up approach

Sandset, Else Charlotte; de Sousa, Diana Aguiar; Christensen, Hanne; Cordonnier, Charlotte; Fischer, Urs; Katan, Mira; Kremer, Christine; Pavlovic, Aleksandra; Sprigg, Nikola; van der Worp, H. Bart; Zedde, Marialuisa; Caso, Valeria

Abstract

Background: An increasing proportion of physicians are women, yet they still face challenges with career advancement. In 2014, the European Stroke Organisation established the goal of increasing the number and participation of women within the society using a Top Down and Bottom Up approach. The ‘Women’s Initiative for Stroke in Europe’ was created the same year by a group of women active within the organisation. We aimed to assess the current status of women in
European Stroke Organisation, and to explore the change in sex differences after the introduction of focused approaches to address disparities in 2014.
Methods: Using organisational records, we collected data on sex differences in core activities from 2008 up to 2017 including membership, participation in conferences, courses and in the official journal of the society, and positions of seniority and leadership. We estimated sex distribution differences in each of the activities from
2014 to date.
Results: In 2017, the proportion of female members was 40%, while 24% of fellows, 22% of the executive board and 19% of the editorial board in the official journal of the society were women. From 2014 to 2017, there was a significant increase in the proportion of female members (p¼0.0002) and in women participating in the annual conference as faculty (p¼0.001). There was no significant change in the sex distribution among the faculty members in junior educational
activities (27%) or fellows.
Interpretation: In 2017, the proportion of women holding positions of seniority and leadership is still significantly lower to the proportion of women attending educational activities. Transparent data on sex distribution will assist implementing tailored programmes to achieve progress against sex-based barriers.

Citation

Sandset, E. C., de Sousa, D. A., Christensen, H., Cordonnier, C., Fischer, U., Katan, M., Kremer, C., Pavlovic, A., Sprigg, N., van der Worp, H. B., Zedde, M., & Caso, V. (2019). Women in the European Stroke Organisation: one, two, many… – A Top Down and Bottom Up approach. European Stroke Journal, 4(3), 247-253. https://doi.org/10.1177/2396987319841979

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 10, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Apr 9, 2019
• Publication Date: Apr 9, 2019
• Deposit Date: May 8, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: May 29, 2019
• Journal: European Stroke Journal
• Electronic ISSN: 2396-9873
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 247-253
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2396987319841979
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2031261
• Publisher URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2396987319841979
• Contract Date: May 29, 2019