Women in orthopedic surgery residencies in the United States

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the effect that increased numbers of women medical school graduates have had on the composition of orthopedic surgery residencies, and to evaluate trends over time in the likelihood of women medical students to select orthopedic residencies.

Method: The author analyzed JAMA's "Reports on Graduate and Undergraduate Medical Education" for the years 1977 to 1996, calculating the numbers of women and men in orthopedic surgery and other surgery residencies, and medical school composition.

Results: Although there have been modest gains in the number of women in orthopedic surgery training programs in the United States, women continue to choose orthopedics only one-seventh as often as do men.

Conclusion: Orthopedics remains an unattractive career choice for women medical students compared with their men counterparts. Biases and stereotypes about women and about orthopedic surgery may account for this difference.