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The State of Females in Plastic Surgery Residency Leadership and its Correlations to Program, Staff and Trainee Characteristics
Corinne Wee MD, Katherine Grunzweig MD, Joseph Younis BS, Anooj Patel BS, Grey Fortenbery MD, Jack Brooker MD, Anand Kumar MD, Kyle Lineberry MD
Case Western Reserve University
2020-02-13
Presenter: Corinne Wee
Affidavit:
I certify that this abstract is the original work of the resident.
Director Name: Anand Kumar MD
Author Category: Resident Plastic Surgery
Presentation Category: Clinical
Abstract Category: General Reconstruction
Purpose: Increasing emphasis on gender diversity in surgery is evident. This study sought to describe the current state of female leadership amongst plastic surgery programs and its relationship with program characteristics. We hypothesized that female leadership would correlate with higher proportions of female staff, and that there would be no effect on program rank.
Methods: This cross-sectional study gathered data from Doximity and plastic surgery program websites for the academic year 2019-2020. Data collected included program rank, and apparent genders of chair, program director, residents and staff. Determination of gender was made by two independent viewers analyzing external physical characteristics. Independent T-tests, Mann-Whitney U tests, and Kruskal-Wallis H tests were performed using IBM SPSS Version 25.
Results: Seventy-nine programs that had data published online were included. Of these programs, twelve (15.2%) had a female chair and fourteen (17.7%) had a female program director. Programs with a female chair or program director were significantly more likely to have a greater proportion of female faculty members (32% versus 20%, p=0.006; 37% versus 18%, p=0.000). Residencies with a female chair or female program director had a higher proportion of female residents, however this did not reach statistical significance (42% versus 37%, p=0.714; 45% versus 37%, p=0.337). A greater number of absolute female faculty members significantly correlated with higher program rank (R=0.363, p=0.001).
Conclusions: This study explores gender demographics of plastic surgery program leaders and its correlations with program characteristics. Continued study is needed to examine additional effects of leadership in an evolving subspecialty.
