Table 3.

Gender representation as deduced from web-collected data compared with data provided by editorial boards via e-mail correspondence

Role	Web collection data only (%)	Data provided by editorial boards incorporated (%)
Editors-in-chief	4 of 36 (11)	11.1
Deputy/executive positions	29 of 92 (32)	32.2
Senior/specialized editorial board positions	87 of 414 (21.0)	23.0
Wider/general editorial board positions	369 of 1935 (19.1)	19.8
Non-academic editorial positions	25 of 62 (40)	46.0
External academic editorial positions	41 of 173 (23.7)	24.8
Honorary/founding positions	4 of 91 (4)	3.9
Administrative positions	9 of 13 (69)	69.6
All	568 of 2816 (20.2)	21.2

Gender disparity exists within the editorial boards of the most renowned general surgery journals. Women account for 20.2 per cent of editorial board members and 11 of editor-in-chief positions. The implications of such significant gender disparity are wide-reaching.