Gender gap in medicine: a call to action for Latin America

Women can experience inequity in the field of medicine due to gender-based bias in several domains, including economic opportunities, health, education, and political leadership [ 1 ]. The recent Global Gender Gap Report from the World Economic Forum revealed a reduction in the gender gap from 2006 to 2023. Nevertheless, it is estimated that around 131 years are required to completely close the gender gap [ 2 ]. The gender gap is particularly large in medical research, considering that only 1 in 3 researchers is female, and women hold less than 25% of jobs in science, engineering, and information and communication technology [ 3 ]. In academia, the gender gap affects all career stages, hindering scientific productivity, authorship and peer review, awards, and scientific funding [ 4 ]. In medical practice, women are paid an average of 30% to 40% less than men and are less likely to be addressed by their professional title [ 5 , 6 ]. It has also been established that in the life sciences, a significant gender gap emerges between the post-doctoral and associate professor levels, with women transitioning to principal investigator at a rate 20% lower than men [ 7 , 8 ]. In fact, gender differences in publication records account for about 60% of the lower academic rank of women [ 7 , 8 ]. The gender gap is also evident in paper citations, with an under-representation of women in reference lists, as more papers include men as first and last authors than would be expected if gender were unrelated to referencing [ 9 ]. Female researchers are also underrepresented among National Institutes of Health investigators and are less likely than men to receive multiple research project grants [ 10 ].