A Longitudinal Analysis of Gender Disparities in the National Cancer Institute Study Section A

Science and academic research should be leading the charge in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. However, evidence suggests that wide disparities exist by gender, geography, and race. A study by Volerman et al. (2021) showed that men hold a higher percentage of chair and reviewer positions in NIH panels, and institutes with higher total funding were less likely to have women as reviewers. The purpose of this study is to investigate gender and geographic differences in NIH study section panel members for the National Cancer Institute Study Section A. Rosters for the National Cancer Institute NIH study section panel A for all meetings from 2011, 2016, and 2021 were retrieved. The study section member names, affiliations, academic degrees, city, and state were also extracted. We used a pilot tested google form for data extraction. Gender was determined using genderize.io as well as the available information on the internet. A 60% probability was required to assign an appropriate gender to a particular member. In comparison to 2011, the data shows a significant increase in women representation in years 2016 and 2021. Our results suggest that the NIH has done a better job of selecting more women to serve on their study section panels in recent years.