Background/Purpose: The gender equity in academic rheumatology initiative has sparked discussions on the effect of inequity in academia on assignment to leadership roles. To explore whether a gender gap exists in the global rheumatology leadership, we undertook a cross-sectional review of gender representation among the presidents of regional leagues, and national organizations in Asia-Pacific.

Methods: The names and terms in office of current and past presidents, of 5 regional rheumatology leagues and 19 national rheumatology organizations were obtained from the official website of each organization. The binary gender of each president was estimated using the name-to-gender inference platform Gender-API. Proportions of male and female presidents were determined for each organization and compared for presidencies commencing before and in/after the year 2000. Differences in female representation over time were tested using Fisher’s exact test.

Results: The overwhelming majority of all the past and current presidents of regional rheumatology leagues (94%) and national rheumatology organizations were men (83%) (Table 1,2). 2/5 of regional rheumatology leagues and 7/19 of national rheumatology organizations had all-male presidents (Table 1,2). The proportion of female presidents increased in many leagues in/after the year 2000. However, the results were significant only for the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), and the 19 rheumatology organizations from Asia-Pacific when analyzed as a whole. (Table 3).

Conclusion: A gender gap in leadership seems to be prevalent in rheumatology globally, although trends indicate improvement in some regions in the past 2 decades. Regional rheumatology leagues and organizations should step forward to promote gender equity and overcome disparities.

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/closing-the-gender-gap-in-global-rheumatology-leadership-are-we-there-yet/