TY - JOUR
T1 - Women in academic surgery
T2 - The pipeline is busted
AU - Sexton, Kevin Wayne
AU - Hocking, Kyle M.
AU - Wise, Eric
AU - Osgood, Michael J.
AU - Cheung-Flynn, Joyce
AU - Komalavilas, Padmini
AU - Campbell, Karen E.
AU - Dattilo, Jeffrey B.
AU - Brophy, Colleen M.
PY - 2012/1
Y1 - 2012/1
N2 - This investigation examined the trends for gender-based advancement in academic surgery by performing a comparative analysis of the rate of change in the percentage of medical students, surgery residents, and full professors of surgery who are women. All available Women in Medicine Annual Reports were obtained from the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC). The gender compositions of medical graduates, surgery residents, and full professors were plotted. Binomial and linear trendlines were calculated to estimate the year when 50% of surgery full professors would be women. Additionally, the percentage distribution of men and women at each professorial rank was determined from 1995 to 2009 using these reports to demonstrate the rate of academic advancement of each gender. The slope of the line of increase for women full professors is significantly less than for female medical students and for female general surgery residents (0.36, compared with 0.75 and 0.99, respectively). This predicts that the earliest time that females will account for 50% of full professors in surgery is the year 2096. When comparing women and men in academic ranks, we find that women are much less likely than men to be full professors. The percentage of full professors in surgery who are women is increasing at a rate disproportionately slower than the increases in female medical students and surgery residents. The rates of increase in female medical students and surgery residents are similar. The disproportionately slow rate of increase in the number of female full professors suggests that multiple factors may be responsible for this discrepancy.
AB - This investigation examined the trends for gender-based advancement in academic surgery by performing a comparative analysis of the rate of change in the percentage of medical students, surgery residents, and full professors of surgery who are women. All available Women in Medicine Annual Reports were obtained from the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC). The gender compositions of medical graduates, surgery residents, and full professors were plotted. Binomial and linear trendlines were calculated to estimate the year when 50% of surgery full professors would be women. Additionally, the percentage distribution of men and women at each professorial rank was determined from 1995 to 2009 using these reports to demonstrate the rate of academic advancement of each gender. The slope of the line of increase for women full professors is significantly less than for female medical students and for female general surgery residents (0.36, compared with 0.75 and 0.99, respectively). This predicts that the earliest time that females will account for 50% of full professors in surgery is the year 2096. When comparing women and men in academic ranks, we find that women are much less likely than men to be full professors. The percentage of full professors in surgery who are women is increasing at a rate disproportionately slower than the increases in female medical students and surgery residents. The rates of increase in female medical students and surgery residents are similar. The disproportionately slow rate of increase in the number of female full professors suggests that multiple factors may be responsible for this discrepancy.
KW - career mobility
KW - faculty, medical/statistics & numerical data
KW - gender bias
KW - physicians, women/statistics & numerical data
KW - physicians, women/trends
KW - surgery
KW - surgery department, hospital
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84855163209&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84855163209&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jsurg.2011.07.008
DO - 10.1016/j.jsurg.2011.07.008
M3 - Article
C2 - 22208838
AN - SCOPUS:84855163209
SN - 1931-7204
VL - 69
SP - 84
EP - 90
JO - Journal of surgical education
JF - Journal of surgical education
IS - 1
ER -