Cross-sectional study of women’s representation in leadership positions in Turkish medical schools, academic departments, specialty boards, conferences and journals in 2023

OpenAlex İngilizce

OBJECTIVES: Ensuring gender equity in leadership is crucial for fair representation and diversity in academic medicine. This study aims to investigate the representation of women in leadership positions in Turkish academic medicine, including medical schools, specialty boards, conferences and medical journals. DESIGN AND SETTING: A cross-sectional study was conducted between August and December 2023. The study analysed data from members of medical faculties, specialty boards, medical conferences and medical journals across Turkey. The source of information was publicly accessible websites. PARTICIPANTS: The study included data from 17 939 members of 113 medical faculties, 112 specialty boards, 73 medical conferences and 246 medical journals in Turkey. INTERVENTIONS: This study has no interventions. RESULTS: Women made up 40.4% of all medical-school faculty but only 22.5% of deans (95% CI 15.5 to 31.6; p<0.001) and 13.6% of surgical-division chairs (7.8-22.7; p<0.001). Vice-deanships (38.5%; 31.4-45.9) did not differ from baseline (p=0.62). Among 49 departments, significant shortfalls were confined to 6, notably paediatrics (36.1% chairs vs 57.9% faculty, p<0.001) and gynaecology-obstetrics (23.2% vs 41.6%, p=0.004). On specialty boards, women held 30.5% of president/chair posts versus 36.7% of all board seats (p=0.18); comparable figures for conferences were 34.2% versus 41.4% (p=0.20). Women occupied 27.2% of editor-in-chief positions, significantly below their 32.9% share of other editorial roles (95% CI 22.8 to 32.0; p=0.007). CONCLUSIONS: Turkey's academic medicine pipeline contains substantial numbers of women, yet marked gaps persist in senior positions. Bridging these gaps will require targeted policies that look beyond overall workforce proportions to the specific decision-making roles where shortfalls remain.