Female physicians may be underrepresented in high-compensation specialties
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Key takeaways:
- Female physicians may be underrepresented among residents entering high-compensation specialties.
- Results showed women accounted for 34.6% of U.S. physicians in a high-compensation specialty.
Using data from U.S. residency programs between 2008 and 2022, published results showed female physicians may be underrepresented among residents entering high-compensation pipeline specialties.
Karina Pereira-Lima, PhD, MSc, from the department of neurology at the University of Michigan, and colleagues assessed data from 490,188 physicians in U.S residency programs between 2008 and 2022.
Pereira-Lima and colleagues analyzed the proportion of female physicians in high-compensation vs. non-high-compensation specialties and surgical vs. nonsurgical specialties.
According to the study, high-compensation surgical specialties included neurosurgery, ophthalmology, orthopedics, otorhinolaryngology, plastic surgery, general surgery, thoracic surgery, urology and vascular surgery, while high-compensation nonsurgical specialties included anesthesiology, dermatology, nuclear medicine, radiation oncology and radiology.
Non-high-compensation specialties included child neurology, emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, medical genetics and genomics, nuclear medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pathology, physical medicine and rehabilitation and psychiatry.
Overall, women accounted for 47.4% of physicians (n = 232,371) . Among all physicians, 25.5% (n = 124,982) entered a high-compensation specialty, with 34.6% (n = 43,183) being female physicians. Among female physicians, 57.6% (n = 71,963) entered a surgical specialty and 42.4% (n= 53, 019) entered a nonsurgical specialty.
Pereira-Lima and colleagues found the proportion of female physicians in both high-compensation and non-high-compensation specialties increased from 2008 to 2022. They found the proportion of female physicians in high-compensation specialties significantly increased from 32.7% to 40.8%, while the proportion of female physicians in non-high-compensation specialties increased from 53% to 53.3%.
In addition, Pereira-Lima and colleagues found the proportion of female applicants to high-compensation nonsurgical specialties decreased from 36.8% to 34.3%, while the proportion of female applicants to high-compensation surgical specialties increased from 28.1% to 37.6%.
“This study found that female physicians were underrepresented among residents entering high-compensation specialties compared with non–high-compensation specialties,” Pereira-Lima and colleagues wrote in the study.
“Similar trends in success rates of female relative to male applicants across both specialty categories suggest that the different matriculation trends identified were due to greater increases in female applicants to surgical compared with nonsurgical specialties, rather than different acceptance rates between categories,” they concluded.
Perspective
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Lisa K. Cannada, MD, FAAOS, FAOA, FACS
As a female orthopedic surgeon, I find the trends reported in this study both encouraging and concerning. The significant increase in female matriculants to high-compensation surgical specialties, including orthopedics, from 28.8% in 2008 to 42.4% in 2022, is a positive step forward in the right direction. This progress likely reflects successful initiatives to attract and support women in surgical careers.
However, the persistent underrepresentation of women in high-compensation specialties overall is troublesome. As someone who has navigated the challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated surgical specialty, I recognize the importance of continued efforts to address barriers and biases. The lack of growth in female representation among high-compensation, nonsurgical specialties is also worrisome to ensure women continue to matriculate into nonsurgical fields.
Moving forward, it is crucial that we identify and implement strategies that have successfully increased female participation in surgical specialties across all high-compensation fields.
This study did not comment on or evaluate compensation differences for these high-compensation jobs for men and women. That information is crucial for improving diversity. In addition, we must consider how intersecting factors, like race and ethnicity, impact these trends to ensure truly inclusive progress in medical education and career opportunities.
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