Gender and geographic diversity of global oral health organisations

Abstract

Introduction Diversity of leadership of global oral health organisations is critical to ensure a global agenda.Aim To analyse the gender and geographic diversity of global oral health organisations.Methods Publicly available data on the gender of their staff and leadership, and congress locations, were analysed. Gender was allocated from photographs if available, and using Genderize, an online allocation platform. Location of leaders and global congresses were analysed by country, region and World Bank income category. The organisations analysed were the International Association of Dental Research (IADR), FDI World Dental Federation, International Federation of Dental Hygienists (IFDH) and 15 dental specialist global associations.Results The majority of headquarter staff in the IADR (76%) and FDI (84%) are female. Gender diversity in the leadership differs across the various organisations, with recent progress towards gender parity. The IFDH was and is exclusively female-led. The majority of leaders are from high-income countries in Europe and North America. Of the 370 congress locations, 90% were held in high-income countries.Conclusion There is recent progress towards gender diversity in the leadership; however, this leadership is essentially from high-income countries. There is an urgent need to publicly commit to diversity goals and implement strategies to reflect the oral health workforce and be truly diverse and global.