Women are severely underrepresented among non-trainee award recipients for hemostasis and thrombosis management, researchers reported in Blood Advances.
Researchers reviewed 406 awards that were presented to 302 non-trainee recipients since 1972 by three hemostasis and thrombosis-related organizations: the International Society of Thrombosis and Hemostasis (ISTH), the Hemostasis and Thrombosis Research Society (HTRS), and the American Heart Association’s Council on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (ATVB). Findings indicated that 391 awards (85%) were given to men, and among 302 unique recipients, 249 (83%) were men.
“If these awards are not equitable, significant downstream effects will be felt by a large proportion of individuals, many of whom have historically been disadvantaged based on a variety of demographic identities,” said Jeremy Jacobs, MD, a clinical fellow at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.
For the analysis, awards for trainees were excluded because of their lack of an online presence and, therefore, the difficulty in determining their genders, as well as the confounding factor of the gender of a recipient’s mentor. Awards given out by the Thrombosis and Hemostasis Societies of North America were excluded from the analysis because their awards include trainees. Papers were not included in the analysis either because of the difficulty of determining contributions by all the authors.
Among the awards reviewed, there was an increase in the proportion given to women, with 29 of 131 awards (22%) given to women from 2011 to 2021, and there was a steady increase in female recipients over time since the 1970s. Despite this, researchers noted, underrepresentation was still clear.
A lack of candidates does not account for the much lower number of female recipients, they added. One-third of U.S. hematology providers are women and more than 60% of Canadian hematologists are women, and, since 2010, more than 50% of all life science doctoral degrees and a bit more than a third of all National Institutes of Health grants have gone to women. Still, only 22% of recognition awards in the past decade have gone to women, they noted.
Significantly more men than women have received awards from the ISTH and ATVB, but there was no significant difference in the genders of HTRS award recipients, researchers found. Researchers also found that while women were underrepresented in research and innovation awards and named lectureship awards, they were not underrepresented in service awards.
“We always want to celebrate progress,” Dr. Jacobs said, adding, “Simply accepting that progress, and hoping that it continues, will not be enough if we want true equality to be attained. There will always be work to do.”
He and his team suggested more transparency about the demographics of award selection committee members and award nominees.
“Previous research has shown that committees that are composed of a specific gender, race, or ethnicity are more likely to nominate and select individuals who resemble themselves. Therefore, ensuring these processes are composed of a diverse group is paramount,” Dr. Jacobs said. “Furthermore, we believe the demographics of individuals nominated for awards should be publicized. This is important, since one cannot know if, for example, women are not winning awards because men are being selected instead or . . . because they are not being nominated in the first place.”
He added, “We challenge and encourage all individuals to examine their own societies or organizations they may be involved in or connected with and hold them accountable for improving these historical inequities.”
Any conflicts of interest declared by the authors can be found in the original article.
Reference
Jacobs JW, Adkins BD, Wheeler AP, et al. Gender equity analysis of nontrainee hemostasis and thrombosis recognition award recipients [published online, 2022 Oct 5]. Blood Adv. doi: 10.1182/bloodadvances.2022008576.