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. 2018 Sep 21;3(6):e000423.
doi: 10.1136/esmoopen-2018-000423. eCollection 2018.

Report on the status of women occupying leadership roles in oncology

Eva Hofstädter-Thalmann  1 , Urania Dafni  2 , Tamara Allen  3 , Dirk Arnold  4   5 , Susana Banerjee  6 , Giuseppe Curigliano M.D  7 , Elena Garralda  8 , Marina Chiara Garassino  9 , John Haanen  10 , Caroline Robert  11 , Cristiana Sessa  12 , Zoi Tsourti  13 , Panagiota Zygoura  13 , Solange Peters  14
Affiliations

Report on the status of women occupying leadership roles in oncology

Eva Hofstädter-Thalmann et al. ESMO Open. .

Abstract

Background: While the global workforce is approaching gender parity, women occupy a small number of management level positions across most professions, including healthcare. Although the inclusion of women into the membership of many oncology societies has increased, the under-representation of women in leadership roles within international and national oncology societies remains relatively consistent. Moreover, the exact status of women participating as board members or presidents of oncology societies or as speakers at oncology congresses was undocumented to date.

Methods: The database used in this analysis was derived from data collection performed by the European Society for Medical Oncology for the years 2015-2016 and data analyses performed using the Statistical Analysis Software V.9.3 and R language for statistical computing V.3.4.0 by Frontier Science Foundation-Hellas. The literature search was performed by the authors.

Results: We report the presence of a gender gap within oncology. Results regarding the under-representation of women occupying leadership roles in oncology show female participation as members of the board or presidents of national and international oncology societies and as invited speakers at oncology congresses remains below 50% in the majority of societies included in this analysis. Women in leadership positions of societies was associated with a higher percentage of female invited speakers at these societies' congresses (p=0.006).

Conclusion: The full contribution that can be attained from using the potential of women in leadership roles is currently under-realised. Examples of how gender and minority participation in organisations improves outcomes and creativity are provided from science, clinical practice and industry that show outcomes are greatly improved by collective participation of both men and women. Although there are programmes in place in many oncology organisations to improve this disparity, the gender gap is still there. Ongoing discussion may help to create more awareness in the effort to accelerate the advancement of women within oncology.

Keywords: gender; gender bias; medical oncology; workplace.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: EH-T is an employee of Janssen, the Pharmaceutical Company of Johnson & Johnson Europe, and a shareholder of Johnson & Johnson. DA has received research funding and/or honoraria from Roche, Merck Serono, Bayer Healthcare, Servier, BTG, Terumo, Sanofi Oncology, Eli Lilly and has participated in non-financial roles as ECCO Executive Board member, ECCO Oncopolicy Group member, EORTC Task Force member (Gastrointestinal cancers)—Global PI function with MOLOGEN, IMPALA trial (MGN 1703 as investigative agent). GC has received research funding and/or honoraria from Roche, Novartis, Pfizer and has participated in non-financial roles as a member of Steering Committee in clinical trials, member of data safety monitoring committee for clinical trials. EG has participated as Advisor for Roche, Neomed Therapeutics and Ellypses Pharma. MCG has received research funding and/or honoraria from MSD, BMS, Roche Astra Zeneca, Takeda and Eli Lilly. CR has been a consultant for BMS, Roche, Novartis, Pierre Fabre, MDS and Amgen. CS is a Scientific Consultant for SAKK (Swiss group for cancer research treatment) and has participated in non-financial roles as the ESGO Vice President, Principal Investigator for the Icon 8B Study, EUPATI Switzerland. SP has received research funding and/or honoraria from Genentech/Roche, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, MSD, Merck Serono, BMS, Novartis, Astra Zeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Amgen, Clovis, Regeneron, Janssen, Takeda and has participated in non-financial roles on the IASLC Board of Directors 2014–2017, SAKK lung group Vice-president, SAMO Vice-president, Froome Past President (2011–2017), ETOP Foundation Council/Scientific coordinator, ESMO president elect 2010–2021, PI ALEX trial, Genentech Steering committee, PI academic trials ETOP, EORTC/SAKK, FMH, IASLC, AACR.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Gender representation of board members in all international societies (reference year: 2016). AACR, American Association for Cancer Research; ASCO, American Society of Clinical Oncology; ASTRO, American Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology; EACR, European Association for Cancer Research; ECCO, European CanCer Organisation; EORTC, European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer; ESMO, European Society for Medical Oncology; ESSO, European Society of Surgical Oncology; ESTRO, European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Gender representation in all international congresses (reference year 2016). AACR, American Association for Cancer Research; ASCO, American Society of Clinical Oncology; EACR, European Association for Cancer Research; ECCO, European CanCer Organisation; ESMO, European Society for Medical Oncology; ESSO, European Society of Surgical Oncology.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Scatterplot of the percentage of female invited speakers versus the percentage of female board members. Note: Societies DGHO and OEGHO constitute one category/society. Please see appendix for definitions of abbreviations.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

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