Representation of women in senior positions in emergency medicine

Background Gender equality and the empowerment of women is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals formulated by the United Nations. Gender-specific inequalities still exist, especially in medicine. Women are particularly lacking in leadership positions and in visible roles outside of patient care, such as at conferences and in scientific journals. Aim The aim of the study was to analyse the proportion of women in leadership positions in emergency medicine and the visible roles at emergency medicine conferences and scientific journals. Materials and methods A selective literature search in PubMed and an evaluation of the conference programmes from 2020-2021 as well as the editorial boards of journals were conducted with regard to the proportion of women. Results Women continue to be significantly underrepresented on the editorial boards of emergency medicine journals and on the boards of leading emergency medicine organisations. Internationally, there are already programmes to increase the proportion of women in field of publications and scientific conferences; to date, there are only a few such programmes for women in emergency medicine in Germany. Conclusion Women in healthcare in general and in emergency medicine in particular are not equally represented outside of patient care. To date, there are hardly any programmes to promote women in emergency medicine in Germany. Mentoring, collegial support and organisational change are key to increasing the proportion of women in nonpatient care roles in emergency medicine.