Did female academic authorship decrease disproportionately due to COVID-19?
It has been long confirmed that COVID-19 has affected men and women disproportionately, with many women physicians conceding greater responsibility for their dependents compared to their male counterparts. A new study, published this week, takes a closer look at what impact COVID-19 might have had on female academic authorship, specifically in pediatric radiology.
Manuscripts submitted to Pediatric Radiology from January 2017 to December 2020 were reviewed. Each of the 1,018 submissions were from North America, and noted the genders of first, last (senior) and corresponding authors. The study states that quality comparisons between 2019 and 2020 were used when seeking to identify any differences that might be due to Covid-19.
Encouragingly, the submissions showed no significant distinctions in female authorship during the recorded months and even showed an increase in female first authorship in early 2020. Female authorship for reviews and pictorial essays was significantly higher during this time. Manuscripts increased in the first quarter of 2020 as well, but there was a notable decrease (50% down to 30%) in female last authorship during that same quarter.
Since last authorship is representative of a supervisory role, this noted, albeit brief, decrease in last female authors does question the implications of how women were disproportionately affected by COVID-19, especially in the initial stages when social distancing, lockdowns and distance learning for children all were implemented to stop the spread. Other studies have reported similar trends in female authorship in radiology during this period.
“This observation was hypothesized to be potentially disadvantageous to academic advancement for women in radiology, especially those in their early career and more likely to have non-work-related responsibilities that were heightened during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.” noted the authors, Rama S. Ayyala and Andrew T. Trouth, both with the Department of Radiology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
Although the study did not find a significant decrease in overall female authorship, the decrease in female last authorship during the first quarter of 2020 should be a point of interest when considering a proper system that supports the academic advancement of females in pediatric radiology.
You can view the detailed study here.
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She joined Innovate Healthcare in 2021 and has since put her unique expertise to use in her editorial role with Health Imaging.