A new study has exposed the stark underrepresentation of women among fellowship programme directors in orthopaedic surgery.
Its authors believe their findings serve as a clarion call to address the gender imbalance within the specialty and the need to foster a more inclusive environment.
The research was conducted by Dr Jason Silvestre and his team at Howard University College of Medicine in Washington DC and sheds light on the gender disparity that persists in the medical world.
The US study spanned the academic year 2022-2023, examining 600 fellowship program directors in orthopaedic surgery.
It employed participation-to-prevalence ratios (PPRs) to gauge representation, with a PPR below 0.8 signifying underrepresentation and above 1.2 indicating overrepresentation.
Shockingly, only 6.7% of fellowship program directors were women.
These disparities extended across academic ranks, with women comprising just 8.8% of assistant professors, 9.6% of associate professors and 4.5% of full professors among program directors.
The study revealed the most significant underrepresentation of women in subspecialties such as:
- Sports medicine (PPR = 0.35)
- Shoulder and elbow (PPR = 0.45)
- Adult reconstruction (PPR = 0.52)
Conversely, women achieved higher PPRs in subspecialties like:
- Oncology (PPR = 1.17)
- Hand surgery (PPR = 1.02)
- Trauma (PPR = 0.80).
Researchers underscored the importance of greater gender diversity among fellowship program directors to encourage more women to enter orthopaedic subspecialties.
They emphasised the need for equitable consideration of orthopaedic surgeons from diverse backgrounds for leadership roles, believing this could enhance workforce diversity and invigorate the orthopaedic community.
They wrote: ‘Greater sex diversity among fellowship [program directors] may help increase women’s recruitment into orthopaedic subspecialties. The equitable consideration of orthopaedic surgeons from all backgrounds for leadership positions can increase workforce diversity, which may improve the vitality of the orthopaedic community.’
Earlier this year, another study found that half of Canadian female orthopaedic surgeons reported career burnout, with correlations with the Gender Bias Scale questionnaire indicating a link between gender bias and career burnout.
The study, published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, found a relationship between career burnout and barriers to gender equity, with 50.5% of Canadian female orthopaedic surgeons reporting career burnout.
Additionally, in October 2021, in a review paper looking at Current challenges for women in orthopaedics that appeared in Bone & Joint Open, Maryam Ahmed and Laura C Hamilton observed that orthopaedics must recognise the various factors affecting the uptake of women to the specialty to increase diversity.
They believed that a cultural and structural change in departments and medical universities would help to improve diversity in orthopaedics.
