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Observational Study
. 2022 Mar 21;12(2):e055516.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055516.

Gender diversity in UK surgical specialties: a national observational study

Thomas Hedley Newman  1 , Matthew G Parry  2 , Roxanna Zakeri  3   4 , Victoria Pegna  5   6 , Amy Nagle  7 , Farah Bhatti  6   8 , Stella Vig  6   9 , James Stephen Arthur Green  10   11
Affiliations
Observational Study

Gender diversity in UK surgical specialties: a national observational study

Thomas Hedley Newman et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Objectives: To compare gender diversity between UK surgical specialties, assess trends over time, and estimate when gender parity might be achieved.

Design: Observational study.

Setting: National Health Service, UK.

Participants: NHS Hospital & Community Health Service workforce statistics for 2011 to 2020 MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Logistic regression was used to compare female representation in 2020 between surgical specialties, and to examine for any significant trends between 2011 and 2020. The method of least squares was used to estimate when female representation of specialty registrars would reach 50% ('gender parity') for specialties with <40% female representation.

Results: In 2020, female consultant and specialty registrar representation was significantly different between surgical specialties (both p<0.001). Female representation for each specialty were as follows (from highest to lowest): Specialty Registrars-Ophthalmology 49.7%, Otolaryngology 48.2%, Paediatric Surgery 45.5%, Plastic Surgery 42.2%, General Surgery 39.8%, Urology 31.6%, Vascular Surgery 25.0%, Neurosurgery 24.7%, Cardiothoracic Surgery 21.3%, and Trauma and Orthopaedics 20.6%; Consultants-Ophthalmology 32.4%, Paediatric Surgery 31.7%, Plastic Surgery 20.9%, General Surgery 17.5%, Otolaryngology 17%, Vascular Surgery 13.7%, Urology 11.7%, Cardiothoracic Surgery 10.8%, Neurosurgery 8.2%, and Trauma and Orthopaedics 7.3%. There was a significant positive trend in female representation of specialty registrars between 2011 and 2020 for all specialties except for Paediatric Surgery (representation consistently >45%) and Vascular Surgery (representation consistently <30%). General Surgery was estimated to achieve gender parity of their specialty registrars by 2028, Urology by 2033, Neurosurgery by 2064, Trauma and Orthopaedics by 2070, and Cardiothoracic Surgery by 2082.

Conclusions: Despite improvements over the last decade, gender disparity persists in the UK surgical workforce and there are significant differences between surgical specialties. Further work is necessary to establish the reasons for these observed differences with a specific focus on Vascular Surgery, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Neurosurgery, and Trauma and Orthopaedics.

Keywords: human resource management; medical education & training; organisation of health services; surgery.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart to demonstrate selection for time-to-parity analysis for surgical registrars.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Percentage of UK surgical workforce who are female from 2011 to 2020. (A) Registrars. (B) Consultants.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Projection of trends to estimate time to parity for female registrars in surgical specialties.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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