Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Jun 3;3(4):185-188.
doi: 10.1016/j.ijwd.2017.03.001. eCollection 2017 Dec.

A study of the number of female editors-in-chief of dermatology journals

C E Gollins  1 , A R Shipman  2 , D F Murrell  1   3
Affiliations

A study of the number of female editors-in-chief of dermatology journals

C E Gollins et al. Int J Womens Dermatol. .

Abstract

Introduction: Over the past 50 years the proportion of women entering medical school has vastly increased, however there still exists a gender gap in top leadership positions, including within academic medicine. It is important to investigate the influence of women in this area, and assess change over time. The aim of the study was to assess the number of women who have acted as editors-in-chief of prominent dermatology journals over the 20th and 21st centuries.

Methods: A list of 25 journals was collated based on their impact factors and prominence. Information regarding previous and current editors was obtained, compiled and analysed.

Results: Overall there have been 26 female editors and at least 128 male editors in the 25 dermatology journals, which means that less than 19% of editors-in-chief have been female. 45.8% of journals have not yet had a female editor. The percentage of female editors ranged from 0% to 100%, with only one journal having had all female editors (International Journal of Women's Dermatology). On average, the journals had female editorship for 27.2% of the total number of years in publication. Of the 13 journals that have had a female editor, 61.5% had their first female editor after the year 2000.

Discussion and conclusion: There are various factors that influence these numbers including age of the journals and length of each editorship. It is clear that over time there has been an increase in the number of women holding these prestigious positions however gender equity has not yet been reached.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Table to show the gender distribution of current and former editors-in-chief of dermatology journals.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Amrein K., Langmann A., Fahrleitner-Pammer A., Pieber T.R., Zollner-Schwetz I. Women underrepresented on editorial boards of 60 major medical journals. Gend Med. 2011;8:378–387. - PubMed
    1. Association of American Medical Colleges Centre for Workforce Studies. Physician Specialty Data Book [Internet] 2012. https://www.aamc.org/download/313228/data/2012physicianspecialtydatabook... 2012 [cited 2016 October 30]. Available from:
    1. Association of American Medical Colleges The State of Women in Academic Medicine: The Pipeline and Pathways to Leadership, 2013-2014 [Internet] 2016. https://www.aamc.org/members/gwims/statistics/ 2016 [cited 2016 September 15]. Available from:
    1. Athena Swan Charter Equality Challenge Unit [Internet] 2016. http://www.ecu.ac.uk/equality-charters/athena-swan/ 2016 [cited 2016 September 17]. Available from:
    1. Feramisco J.D., Leitenberger J.J., Redfern S.I., Bian A., Xie X.J., Resneck J.S., Jr. A gender gap in the dermatology literature? Cross-sectional analysis of manuscript authorship trends in dermatology journals during 3 decades. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2009;60:63–69. - PubMed