Abstracts accepted for the 2021-2023 French Orthopaedic and Traumatology Society meetings: Proportion of women submitters.

Background: Women are underrepresented in orthopaedic and trauma surgery worldwide, with proportions of 4%-17% across countries and 9.1% in France. The annual meeting of the French Society for Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery (SOFCOT) provides opportunities for quantifying the representation of women, which has not yet been accurately evaluated. The objectives of this retrospective study were: 1) to evaluate the proportion of women relative to men who submitted abstracts accepted for presentation at annual SOFCOT meetings, 2) to analyse this proportion in each abstract category, and 3) to compare the professional profiles of submitting authors.

Hypothesis: Among authors with abstracts accepted for presentation at annual SOFCOT meetings, only a minority were women.

Methods: This retrospective study evaluated all abstracts accepted for presentation at the annual SOFCOT meetings held in 2021, 2022, and 2023. For each accepted abstract, the gender and professional profile of the submitting author were assessed. The female/male ratio was determined for each abstract category and professional profile for each of the three years.

Results: The female/male ratio among authors of abstracts accepted in 2021, 2022, and 2023 was 161/923 (14.9% women), 128/541 (19.1%), and 120/550 (17.9%). The proportion of women was significantly less than the proportion of men for abstracts on the knee (41/333, 11% women (p = 0.0008)), hip (23/209, 9.9% (p = 0.002)), trauma (53 /358, 12,9% (p = 0.017)), and tumours (14/119, 10.5% (p = 0.04)). The proportion of women was also significantly smaller than the proportion of men among residents/fellows (154/491, 23.5% (p < 0.0001)), senior surgeons in non-university institutions (42/400, 11.5% (p < 0.0001)), and senior surgeons in university hospitals (23/164, 12.3% (p = 0.009)).

Discussion: The representation of women compared to men remains low at annual SOFCOT meetings despite being greater than the overall representation of women among orthopaedic surgeons in France. These results highlight the appeal of research and growing interest for orthopaedic surgery among women. Scientific societies and surgical teams must continue to encourage this dynamic.

Level of evidence: III; retrospective case-control study.