How Well Represented Are Women Orthopaedic Surgeons and Residents on Major Orthopaedic Editorial Boards and Publications?

Abstract

Background Recent studies indicate that women are substantially underrepresented as orthopaedic surgeons and residents compared with other specialties in medicine and medical school. The reasons for this are multifactorial and not completely understood, but previous studies suggest that women may be attracted to fields in which they have female role models. Given that women interested in academia and research may use female editorship and authorship as a proxy for female representation in orthopaedic surgery, we wanted to examine the proportion of women represented in orthopaedic journals and determine if it reflects the distribution of women in orthopaedic surgery as a field. We further wanted to understand if this representation has changed over time in the setting of a slowly shifting gender landscape within orthopaedic surgery. Questions/purposes (1) How are women orthopaedic surgeons and residents represented in orthopaedic journals compared with men? (2) Have these proportions changed in the past two decades in light of relatively new efforts to recruit women to the field of orthopaedic surgery? Methods The gender composition of editorial boards and first and last authors were obtained from the 1997, 2007, and 2017 volumes of the following journals: The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery (JBJS), the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (JAAOS), and Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research® (CORR®). Gender neutral names were searched to obtain a picture to ensure proper tallies. Results The total combined amount of women first and last authors increased from 88 of 1450 (6%) in 1997 to 152 of 1912 (8%) in 2007 to 723 of 5391 (13%) in 2017. Similarly, three of 113 (3%) editorial board members were women in 1997, three of 105 (3%) were women in 2007 and 10 of 107 (9%) editors were women in 2017. Of note, 0 out of 9 editors-in-chief were women. Conclusions Based on the current percentage of women orthopaedic surgeons and residents, women are represented equally or in greater numbers as editors and authors in JAAOS, JBJS, and CORR. This may be in part due to women orthopaedic surgeons entering academic medicine at a greater rate than males. Clinical Relevance Orthopaedic surgeons serving as mentors to prospective female applicants can cite female representation on editorial boards and as authors as an example of gender parity in the field. Additionally, active orthopaedic surgeons who are women interested in these leadership positions should be encouraged that these opportunities exist, regardless of gender.

A 15-Year Report on the Uneven Distribution of Women in Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Training Programs in the United States

“…From 1987 to 2017, 1.7% of senior authors and 4.4% of first authors of orthopaedic publications were female 33 . There has never been a female editor-in-chief of the 3 major orthopaedic journals 34 . The majority of women have academic rank of instructor, with only 8.7% achieving full professor 35 .…”

Bibliometric Analysis of the English Musculoskeletal Literature over the Last 30 Years

“…This is very encouraging and seems to demonstrate that the gender gap is being slowly closed. A recent study [ 150 ] noted that women were represented equally or in greater numbers as editors in JBJS, Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons , and Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research. They noted the same lag that we did when comparing editors to authors, with the percentage of female editors in 2017 roughly equaling the percentage of female authors in 2007.…”

Characteristics of Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Fellowship Directors

“…The skills and specific training required to become physician leaders in surgical fields, 3,8,11 predictors of physician leaders, 2 and the role of characteristic variations in position selection and specialty representation have also been explored in the context of orthopaedics. 6,12,13 Recently, a cross-sectional study identifying leadership trends in spine surgery fellowships demonstrated that fellowship directors (FDs) are more likely to have graduated from certain residency and fellowship programs. 4 While these trends have been identified in orthopaedic spine surgery, there is no current literature describing these trends in sports medicine or any other orthopaedic subspecialty.…”