Despite important advances in recent decades, gender inequality persists in science. In this
Comment, the current gender composition of the authors published in The Lancet journals is
analyzed briefly. In general terms, women represent about one-third of article authorships, with
the noteworthy exception of The Lancet Psychiatry (45.2%). Female representation among first
authors is 51.1% in The Lancet Psychiatry and 42.9% in The Lancet Global Health, higher than
the overall percentages.
A common feature (except for The Lancet HIV and, to a lesser extent, The Lancet Global
Health) is a more pronounced gender gap in the last (senior) position, which indicates that age
might be a factor (although not the only one) modulating gender asymmetry in The Lancet
journals