Academic Trajectories of Latin American Female Researchers in the Field of Physical Activity and Health.

Authors

Andrea Ramírez Varela, Juliana Mejía-Grueso, Paulo Felipe Ribeiro Bandeira, Uday Pratap Singh, I-Min Lee, Javiera Alarcón-Aguilar, Emilia Chagas-Costa, Simone Honda, Angélica Ochoa-Avilés, Gabriela De Roia, Eduardo Ribes Kohn, Gloria Isabel Niño-Cruz, Pablo Roa-Urrutia, Inácio Crochemore-Silva, Xiaoqian Jiang, Michael Pratt, Pedro C Hallal, Deborah Salvo

Published in

Journal of physical activity & health. Pages 1-16. Jul 28, 2026. Epub Jul 28, 2026.

Abstract

Women remain underrepresented in academic leadership globally, particularly in health fields. In Latin America, limited funding, centralized research systems, and institutional inequities further restrict women's advancement. In physical activity and health research, these disparities may limit perspectives shaping evidence and policy. We examined institutional environments, authorship patterns, and factors associated with women researchers' progression across Latin America.
We conducted an observational study across 13 Latin American countries using 3 approaches: (1) a cross-sectional survey using the Culture Conducive to Women's Academic Success (CCWAS) instrument, with normalized domain scores analyzed descriptively and visualized with equiplots in R; (2) a network analysis of institutional, demographic, and productivity variables using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regularization and centrality metrics; and (3) bibliometric analysis of PubMed-indexed publications to assess gendered authorship trajectories and team composition.
Among 121 participants, midcareer researchers reported the lowest CCWAS scores, particularly for work-life balance, whereas senior researchers reported the highest supportive leadership scores. Academic culture perceptions varied across countries. Network analysis identified principal investigator roles, coauthorship, and supportive leadership perceptions as central factors associated with academic productivity. Bibliometrics showed that women more often progressed from contributor to first-author roles than to last-author positions. Teams with female first and last authors had the highest proportion of women contributors.
Achieving gender equity in physical activity and health research in Latin America requires more than representation. Institutional efforts to promote inclusive leadership, supportive environments, and midcareer advancement are essential for equitable, resilient research systems.

PMID:
42521200
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 29 Jul 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.