Women in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine in France: Are we making any progress?

Introduction: Gender imbalance in medicine is a topic of increasing interest. Gender matters, as there is increasing evidence that a gender diverse medical workforce translates into improved patient outcomes. The gender distribution in France among the Anaesthetists-Intensive Care (AIC) physicians has never been considered.

Methods: Gender distribution is described during the last two decades in France among the whole population of AIC physicians according to their age, professional activity, leading and academic position.

Results: The proportion of female AIC physicians remained stable from 1999 to 2018, between 35 and 38%. Only 40% of residents choosing this specialty in 2018 were female. Female AIC physicians were under-represented in key medico-political and academic positions: in 2018, 0.7% of the 605 presidents of medical commissions from public hospitals and none of the medical university deans were female AIC physicians; 9% of AIC full Professors were female. In the French Society of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care (SFAR), 42% of the members of the Scientific Committee of our Society are women.

Conclusions: A gender imbalance is apparent in French AIC Medicine and worsens as physicians progress through their academic or leadership pathways. The French Society of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care campaigns for proportional representation at all levels of leadership, which translates into more gender equality in the committees of the society, including the Scientific Committee. A major policy shift is urgently required to support women, to tend toward gender parity to increase the performance of the French AIC workforce.