Is this (still) a man's world?

During the past 50 years, the participation of women in medicine has increased dramatically. However, this encouraging influx has not been accompanied by equality for male and female faculty in terms of rank attainment, leadership roles and salaries. There is considerable evidence that women are still under-represented in the higher echelons of academic medicine, either as heads of departments, authors of scientific papers or members of editorial boards. Participation in medical congresses is another important measure of medical achievement; this manuscript comments on the female representation in four of the largest international meetings in the field of intensive care medicine (ICM). It notes the scarcity of female faculty members and proposes several explanations for this phenomenon. The notable under-representation of women in the ICM congresses suggests the existence of a 'glass ceiling' in the field of intensive care medicine, a specialty that, up until today, hasn't been considered as traditionally 'male'.