Since the mid-1960s, slightly more men than women have been present on this planet. In 2022, 4 billion males and 3.95 billion females were living worldwide, implying 50.4% of the world population is male and 49.6% female. By 2050, however, it is expected that the sex ratio will even out and, after 2050, females will outnumber males [1]. Currently, women already outnumber men in the older age groups because of the differences in mortality between men and women, with woman tending to live longer than men.

Although females account for a significant proportion of the patient population, in the past women were excluded from participation in studies. Therefore, research data collected from men were generalized to women, despite the fact that disease symptoms and drug metabolism are different in women and men. The gap in female data resulted in longer times to diagnosis for women than for men, with more frequent misdiagnoses and women more often mistakenly discharged while having a serious medical event [2]. Although this gender gap is improving, it is still present [3].

But what about a gender gap in authorships? In this issue of Endoscopy, Elisabetta Mastrorocco et al. performed a systematic review to assess whether there is a gender gap in the authorship of scientific research in gastrointestinal journals and in the principal investigators [4] of ongoing research.

Mastrorocco et al. also found a significant correlation between last and first female authorship. Where the last author was a woman, the first author was female in 51% of publications; when the last author was a man, this percentage came down to 28%. This correlation between last and first female authorship has also been found in other specialties, such as vascular surgery, transplantation surgery, and cardiology [4] [5] [6], while in infectious disease journals, the proportion of female editors appeared to influence the proportions of female last and first authors [7].

Remarkably, in most of the papers that have addressed the gender authorship gap, the first author has been a woman. This may be due to the fact that women recognize this gender gap and want to publish about it, or that the idea became apparent by men and asking women to dive into it to close the gap at the same time.

The positive news is that overall there has been a slight increase in female first and last authorships over recent years, which may be a result of the increase in women in science and medicine. I hope that both this editorial and the systematic review written mostly by women – including first and last female authorship – being published in an endoscopy journal will contribute to, stimulate, and encourage men and women to further close the gender authorship gap.

Article published online:
04 April 2024

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