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Residents’ Perceptions of Gender Diversity in Orthopaedic Surgery

Jaclyn Hill, M.D.

Gender diversity in the field of orthopaedic surgery lags behind other surgical specialties. Women comprise of only 13.2% of orthopaedic residents and 15% of full-time faculty despite the fact that 47.8% of graduating medical students are women. The purpose of the study was to identify the gender-specific factors that influenced orthopaedic surgery residents to choose their speciality.

A seven-question survey was emailed to 2629 orthopaedic residents by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS). The questions were formulated to detect why orthopaedic surgery residents chose their specialty using a 5-point Likert scale (1-very negative, 3-neutral, 5-very positive). The collection period for responses was 6 weeks. Data was collected and responses were analyzed using one-tailed t-tests to make comparisons between the two genders’ responses.

529 of 2629 contacted orthopaedic surgery residents responded to the survey (20%). Of the respondents, 114 (22%) were female and 415 (78%) were male. Several significant differences were noted between the genders’ responses. More men choose to enter orthopaedic surgery prior to entering clinical rotations (p = 0.02) and more women choose during elective rotations (p = 0.04). Additionally, women were more likely than men to be positively influenced by a role model of the same gender or ethnicity (p<0.0001), while men were more likely to choose orthopaedics because of positive views on surgical lifestyle after training and increased physical demands of the specialty (p = 0.004 and p = 0.006, respectively). Women, significantly more than men, felt that more of their peers entered general surgery because of greater acceptance by senior faculty in the field (p <0.0001).

To our knowledge, this study is the first to survey residents on their perceptions of orthopaedic surgery and identify factors that may hinder the recruitment of women into orthopaedic surgery. Our data shows that increased orthopaedic exposure during medical school and increased female mentorship may help recruit more females into the specialty of orthopaedic surgery.