Persistent Imbalance: Women's Representation in North American Pediatric Cardiology Leadership Roles

Alaina K Kipps¹, Audrey C Marshall², Neha Bansal³, Holly Bauser-Heaton⁴, Nadine Choueiter³, Devyani Chowdhury⁵, Aarti Dalal⁶, Molly Ehrlich⁷, Lindsay R Freud², Supriya S Jain⁸, Pei-Ni Jone⁹, Kristin Laraja¹⁰, Dalia Lopez-Colon⁷, Sonal T Owens¹¹, Christina Ronai¹², Ritu Sachdeva⁴, Corey Stiver¹³, Nicole Sutton¹⁴, Terrie Vasilopoulos¹⁵, Jennifer Co-Vu⁷; American College of Cardiology Women in Cardiology-Adult Congenital Pediatric Cardiology Working Group

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pediatrics, Division of Cardiology, Stanford School of Medicine and Stanford Children's Health Palo Alto, Palo Alto, California, USA. Electronic address: akipps@stanford.edu.
² Department of Paediatrics, Division of Cardiology, University of Toronto and Hospital for Sick Children Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
³ Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Kravis Children's Hospital at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA.
⁴ Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Emory University School of Medicine and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
⁵ Department of Pediatrics, Division of Cardiology, Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and Nemours Cardiac Center, Wilmington, Delaware, USA.
⁶ Department of Pediatrics, Division of Cardiology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Monroe Carell Jr Children's Hospital, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
⁷ Congenital Heart Center, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
⁸ Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, New York Medical College, Maria Fareri Children's Hospital at Westchester, New York, New York, USA.
⁹ Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Ann & Robert Lurie Children's Hospital, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
¹⁰ Division of Pediatric Cardiology, UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.
¹¹ Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
¹² Department of Cardiology, Boston Children's Hospital, Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
¹³ Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, USA.
¹⁵ Departments of Anesthesiology and Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida, USA.

PMID: 40713147
PMCID: PMC12418463
DOI: 10.1016/j.jacadv.2025.101878

Persistent Imbalance: Women's Representation in North American Pediatric Cardiology Leadership Roles

Alaina K Kipps et al. JACC Adv. 2025 Jul.

. 2025 Jul;4(7):101878.

doi: 10.1016/j.jacadv.2025.101878.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pediatrics, Division of Cardiology, Stanford School of Medicine and Stanford Children's Health Palo Alto, Palo Alto, California, USA. Electronic address: akipps@stanford.edu.
² Department of Paediatrics, Division of Cardiology, University of Toronto and Hospital for Sick Children Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
³ Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Kravis Children's Hospital at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA.
⁴ Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Emory University School of Medicine and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
⁵ Department of Pediatrics, Division of Cardiology, Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and Nemours Cardiac Center, Wilmington, Delaware, USA.
⁶ Department of Pediatrics, Division of Cardiology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Monroe Carell Jr Children's Hospital, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
⁷ Congenital Heart Center, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
⁸ Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, New York Medical College, Maria Fareri Children's Hospital at Westchester, New York, New York, USA.
⁹ Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Ann & Robert Lurie Children's Hospital, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
¹⁰ Division of Pediatric Cardiology, UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.
¹¹ Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
¹² Department of Cardiology, Boston Children's Hospital, Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
¹³ Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, USA.
¹⁵ Departments of Anesthesiology and Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida, USA.

PMID: 40713147
PMCID: PMC12418463
DOI: 10.1016/j.jacadv.2025.101878

Abstract

Background: Despite recent gender parity of physicians entering pediatric cardiology, representation of women leaders lags their male colleagues.

Objectives: We sought to better understand the variation in women in leadership roles in pediatric cardiology.

Methods: The gender of physicians in 16 prespecified leadership positions was collected by survey between July 2022 and January 2023 from pediatric cardiology programs with >5 cardiologists in North America. We analyzed the association of women leaders with center size (based on surgical volume), geographic region, presence of categorical fellowship program, and gender of division chief and department chair.

Results: Across 99 centers, a median of 13 (Q1-Q3: 10-15) roles/center were identified. Women held 36.8% of all leadership roles and 35.1% of cardiology-specific roles. Only 13% of pediatric cardiology chiefs were women. Their programs had more women in subsection leadership roles than male-led centers (47% vs 36%, P = 0.028). A minority of leadership posts were shared among 2 physicians, yet more women than men shared their roles (5.4% women vs 2.5% men, P = 0.010). More men than women have dual leadership positions (15.1% men vs 9.9% women, P = 0.012). We found no association of center size, geographic region, presence of fellowship program, or gender of department chair with percent women leadership.

Conclusions: Women hold fewer leadership positions across most subsections of pediatric cardiology programs, with more equitable distribution at centers led by women division chiefs. Women are more likely to share a leadership position with another cardiologist and less likely than men to hold more than 1 leadership post concurrently.

Keywords: gender; leadership; pediatric cardiology; subspecialty.

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Conflict of interest statement

Funding support and author disclosures The authors have reported that they have no relationships relevant to the contents of this paper to disclose.

Figures

**Central Illustration**
Pediatric Cardiology Leadership Roles and Gender Distribution The variation in women’s representation among all major pediatric cardiology clinical subsection and programmatic roles is illustrated. There is underrepresentation of women in leadership roles across most areas, with the lowest among chiefs, interventional cardiology, and electrophysiology. The highest representation is in the areas of fetal cardiology and preventive cardiology. cMRI = cardiac magnetic resonance imaging; CV = cardiovascular.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

1. Sharp E., Forster C., Shah S., Morton K. In: Women in pediatrics: the past, present and future. Spector N.D., O’Toole J.K., Overholser B., editors. Springer International Publishing; Cham: 2022. Women practicing in pediatrics; pp. 31–47.
1. Anon American board of pediatrics 2022 workforce database. https://www.abp.org/content/workforce
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1. Kim M.E., Franklin W., Dubin A.M., et al. What makes an effective chief of pediatric cardiology: insights from chiefs of North American pediatric programs. J Am Heart Assoc. 2024;13 - PMC - PubMed
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Persistent Imbalance: Women's Representation in North American Pediatric Cardiology Leadership Roles

Affiliations

Persistent Imbalance: Women's Representation in North American Pediatric Cardiology Leadership Roles

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

Figures

References

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources