M. D. Moore1, K. D. Gray1, J. Abelson1, D. Fehling1, T. J. Fahey1, T. Beninato1 1Weill Corenll Medicine,Surgery,New York, NY, USA
Introduction: One of the goals of academic general surgery (GS) residency programs is to train future academic surgeons. Women representation in surgical academia remains low despite the near-equilibration of men and women entering medical school and the increase in woman applicants to GS residency. A correlation between high rank position and pursuit of an academic career among applicants to an academic GS residency program has been previously shown. We aimed to elucidate if underrepresentation of women in academic surgery is due to gender disparity in applicants to an academic GS residency program and their position on the rank list.
Methods: Rank lists at an academic GS program were used to determine proportion of female ranked candidates from 1992-2016. The lists were further examined to determine proportion of women ranked in the top 20 positions. The proportion of women enrolled in GS programs nationwide during the same time period was determined using available JAMA GME annual reports.
Results: Twenty-five rank lists with 2231 candidates (621 females, 1610 males) were evaluated. The proportion of women candidates ranked increased from 24% in 1992 to 46% in 2016 with a maximum of 46% in 2016. The percentage of women enrolled in GS residency nationwide increased during that time from 16% to the current high of 39%. In the years 1992-1994, 1997, and 2006, a significantly higher percentage of women were ranked by our program than the percentage of women who were enrolled in GS programs nationally. In the remaining years, the proportion ranked by our program was similar to the national applicant pool. The proportion of women ranked in the top 20 was no different than the proportion of women on the entire rank list.
Conclusion: The proportion of female applicants to a single academic GS program has either exceeded or paralleled national trends in proportion of women enrolled in surgery programs. Similar proportions of women were ranked competitively in the top 20 positions. Underrepresentation of women in surgical leadership positions does not appear to be due to a lack of inflow of qualified, competitive female candidates.
