Female Neurosurgery Residency Program Directors in the United States: A Cross-sectional Descriptive Analysis

Despite women reaching an unprecedented majority of medical school matriculants (50.7%) in 2017, there remains a substantial delay in addressing gender disparities that exist in positions of leadership throughout the medical field; this gap appears more prominent in traditionally male-dominated specialties, such as neurosurgery.1,2 The medical field has made significant progress over the years embracing missions of diversity and inclusion, however, women are frequently still finding themselves fighting “the pipeline effect”1 and the “glass ceiling” in neurosurgery.3

In 2008, the Women in Neurosurgery Society (WINS) published an index white paper discussing the current state of gender inequity in the field, noting how the lack of female mentors perpetuates barriers to entry; the white paper outlined the steps moving forward to help address these issues and promote recruitment and retention of women in neurosurgery.3 Since then, there has been a dramatic rise in literature published surrounding this issue: a descriptive analysis of women neurosurgeons in organized leadership positions,1 gender disparities in academic rank achievement,4 and sex differences in primary authorship trends over the years in neurosurgical journals.5

The goal of this study aims to augment the recently published work by Feng et al. (2020).1 This work delineates the discrepancies female neurosurgeons face in academic promotion compared to their male counterparts and provides a descriptive summary of female leadership in organized neurosurgery. Our study aims to provide a cross-sectional analysis of baseline demographics and academic backgrounds with an emphasis on the influence of the gender of current neurosurgery residency program directors (PDs) in the United States.

The decision to focus on the role of residency PD and gender discrepancies was made for several reasons. First, residency PDs play a vital role in the leadership and management of their training programs. While fulfilling specific qualifications set by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, PDs are responsible for the selection, mentorship, and training of a handful of physicians each year.6 With the increasing diversity of training and number of residency positions each year, the role of residency PD requires a competent, versatile, and compassionate leader.7 Despite their influential leadership position, little has been studied about the demographics and academic backgrounds of PDs. This study will offer insight into the general similarities or trends among PDs within neurosurgery. Although there have been a select few studies on this topic for other specialties,8, 9, 10, 11 no such study exists yet for neurosurgery.

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