Author Gender in The Lancet journals

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