Gender disparities in academic radiation oncology research: A narrative review.

Introduction: Despite rising numbers of women in radiation oncology (RO), they remain under-represented in academic leadership and research. This narrative review assesses gender disparities in academic RO. Materials and methods: PubMed/MEDLINE and Europe PMC were searched in August 2026 for articles published from 2000 onwards, with additional domain-specific and country-specific searches. Of 1629 records, 1035 were screened on title and abstract after removal of duplicates and preprints, 657 were assessed in detail, and 108 that reported primary, gender-disaggregated data on radiation oncologists or trainees were included, together with three authorship analyses that report the radiation oncology journals separately. Because outcome definitions and academic structures differ across countries, the synthesis is narrative. Results: The "leaky pipeline" was a consistent finding: women hold a smaller share of senior posts than of the workforce in every country with data. Across United States National Cancer Institute-designated centres, 24.6% of men versus 15.5% of women held full professorships ( Conclusion: Disparities persist across countries. The evidence is observational and cannot establish mechanisms; corrective programmes report outcomes, none controlled. Differences are associations, not causal effects; no data were identified for Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe or most of Asia. A national survey with SFRO, SFjRO and FORce is needed.