The Gender of Authors in the Baylor Proceedings: a Reflection of Both Current Staff Composition and Lesser Number of Publications by Female Physicians

Abstract

Gender parity has been achieved in entrance to medical school, but women still constitute only 32% of the physicians licensed to practice in the state of Texas. Similarly, female physicians lag behind in scholarly publications. This gender imbalance appears to be improving, although parity has yet to be achieved in many journals. We could reliably obtain the gender of both the physician staff of the North Division of Baylor Scott & White Health and of the authors in Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings. Of the Baylor authors, 19% were female physicians, while 65% were male physicians (others were nonphysicians). The gender makeup of the total staff was 27% female and 73% male physicians. Thus, female authorship is only 70% as great as the number of female staff physicians. We suggest ways to encourage more women to submit publications.