The Gender Gap in Academic Plastic Surgery: A 45-Year Analysis

Purpose: An increasing number of women are entering the medical profession, but plastic surgery remains a male dominated profession especially within academia. As academic aspirations and advancement depend largely on research productivity, we assessed the number of articles authored by women in the journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (PRS). We place these findings in the context of trends in the representation of women among plastic surgery attendings and residents.

Methods: Original articles in PRS published during the years 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2004, and 2014 were analyzed. First and senior authors with an M.D. degree and U.S. institutional affiliation were categorized by gender. Authorship trends were compared with those from other specialties. Demographic data on plastic surgery residents and faculty were obtained from the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Results: Overall, the percentage of women authors in PRS increased from 2.4% in 1970 to 13.3% in 2014. Over the same time period, the percentage of women plastic surgery residents increased from 2.6% to 32.5%, which was greater than the 14.2% of women plastic surgery faculty in 2014. By 2014, there were more women first authors (19.1%) than senior authors (7.7%) (p < 0.001). As a field, plastic surgery had fewer women authors than other specialties including pediatrics, obstetrics & gynecology, general surgery, internal medicine, and radiation oncology (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: The increase in representation of women among plastic surgery residents and authors is encouraging, but lags behind advances in other specialties. Understanding reasons for these trends may ultimately help improve gender equity in academic plastic surgery.