Persistent Lack of Female Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Fellows

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the gender composition of fellows, faculty, and leaders within orthopaedic sports medicine fellowship programs to provide a more complete description of gender diversity within this subspecialty.

Methods: Official program websites of orthopaedic sports medicine fellowships listed on the Arthroscopy Association of North America fellowship directory were examined. Data collected for analysis included the gender of program directors, fellowship faculty, orthopaedic surgery department faculty, current sports medicine fellows, and fellows who graduated within the last 5 years.

Results: Of the 132 orthopaedic sports medicine fellows in training in the United States in the 2021 to 2022 academic year, 113 (85.6%) were men and 19 (14.4%) were women (P < .001). Within the past 5 years, 419 fellows were listed as completing a sports medicine fellowship, with 375 (89.5%) being men, and 44 (10.5%) being women (P < .001). There was no significant difference in the gender composition of current fellows compared with the composition of fellows within the last 5 years (P = .74). When we examined gender trends in sports medicine faculty, 639 (86.6%) were men and 99 (13.4%) were women (P < .001). There were 14 women (14.4%) orthopaedic sports medicine faculty in leadership positions (i.e., program director or assistant program director) compared with 83 men in such positions (85.6%) (P < .001).

Conclusions: Orthopaedic sports medicine fellowships remain heavily male-dominated on all levels, including fellows, faculty, and leadership. There were no differences in the gender composition of current fellows when compared with those who graduated in the last 5 years, suggesting persistent gender disparity and the need for novel initiatives to enhance gender diversity in sports medicine.

Level of evidence: IV, descriptive study.

Fig 1

Gender distribution of fellows, faculty, and leaders in orthopaedic sports medicine fellowship programs. Shown is the percentage of men (light blue) and women (dark blue) fellows and faculty in sports medicine fellowship programs that were examined. The asterisk indicates significance (P < .05).