There are a number of factors that may hinder women's surgical careers. Here, we focus on one possible factor: the representation of women at surgical conferences.

Using a purposive sample of 16 national surgical societies, we assessed the proportion of women speakers at each society's annual meeting in plenary speaker and session speaker (panelist and moderator) roles in 2011 and 2016.

Overall, 23.8% (28,591/120,351) of all society members were women. Of the 129 plenary speakers, 19.4% (n = 25) were women. Twelve conferences (42.9%) had zero women as plenary speakers. Of the 5,161 session speakers, 1,120 (21.7%) were women. Three-hundred fifty-three (39.5%) of the 893 panels included only male speakers. The proportion of women on conference organizing committees was positively correlated with having women session speakers (r = 0.71, p=<0.001)

There is underrepresentation of women as conference speakers, particularly in plenary roles. There was wide variability in the representation of women across conferences.

In this cross-sectional analysis of 16 surgical societies in 2011 and 2016, the proportion of women in plenary speaking roles was generally low, and the proportion of women in session speaking roles was highly variable. The proportion of women on program committees and in society leadership roles were both positively associated with having women in session speaker roles and negatively associated with all-male panels. Societies should consider tracking the demographics of members and speaker invitations. Societies should also include more women on program committees in order to increase opportunities for women within societies.