Gender Representation in Speaking Roles at the AAHKS Annual Meeting: 2012-2019

Abstract Introduction The American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS) has one of the lowest percentages of women members among orthopaedic surgery subspecialty societies, having increased from 1.3% to 3.1% since 2012. Our purpose was to report the representation of women in various speaking roles at the AAHKS annual meeting over this time period. Methods We accessed the 2012-2019 AAHKS annual meeting programs online and reviewed all paper presenters, symposium faculty, and session moderators. We recorded instances of women speakers and their degree and specialty. We calculated the percentage of women speakers, women orthopaedic surgeon speakers, women session moderators, and women symposium faculty for the overall period of 2012-2019, and for each annual meeting. Results Between 2012 and 2019, 33/877(3.8%) of all speakers at AAHKS were women. Of these, 21 were women orthopaedic surgeons, or 2.4% of all speakers. The proportion of total women speakers per year ranged from 1.7%(2017) to 6.4%(2013). 24/492 (4.9%) of paper presenters were women, and 12/492(2.4%) were women orthopaedic surgeons. 4/143(2.8%) of session moderators were women, and all were orthopaedic surgeons. 5/245(2.0%) symposium faculty were women, and 0/245(0%) were women orthopaedic surgeons. Conclusion While the percentage of women AAHKS members has grown since 2012, the small percentage of women orthopaedic surgeons speaking at AAHKS has not. There were no women orthopaedic surgeons included on symposium faculty over this entire period. We appreciate and encourage efforts to improve gender diversity among speakers at AAHKS annual meetings.