Gender Disparity in Surgical Infection Research

Author(s):

Lillian Huang; Karla Bernardi; Nicole Lyons; Deepa Cherla; Julie Holihan; Alexander Martin; Alexis Milton; Tien Ko; Lynn Hydo; Mike Liang

Background:

Although the number of women surgeons and surgery residents has increased over time, women remain under-represented in surgery and academic surgery leadership positions. A 2015 report from the Association of American Medical Colleges showed that while 47% of medical students and 46% of residents are women, women only make up 39% of full-time academic faculty, 22% of full professors, 16% of department chairs, and 16% of medical school deans. In surgery, women comprise of 23% of full-time faculty, 10% of full professors, and 3% of department chairs. Surgical research and publications are used as determinants of hiring and promotion.

Hypothesis:

We hypothesize that among published authors in surgical infection research, there is an under-representation of women.

Methods:

Pubmed was searched for surgical infection related publications using the search criteria (“surgical infections” OR “surgical site infection”) in four different time periods: 2000-2005, 2006-2010, 2011-2015, and 2016-2017. Articles were selected using a random number generator and the gender of the first and last authors were determined by an online search. The percentage of women to men authorship in surgical infection research was compared over time using chi-square statistic.

Results:

Of 160 surgical infection publications reviewed, only 28.1% of the first authors (p<0.001) and 13.8% of the last authors (p=0.034) were women physicians. The percentage of women first authors and women last authors were 10.0% and 22.5% from 2000-2005, 42.5% and 2.5% from 2006-2010, 15.0% and 20.0% from 2011-2015, and 45.0% and 10.0% from 2016-2017 (first author p<0.001 and last author p=0.034; Figure).

Conclusions:

Women physicians are under-represented in surgical infection research. The number of women surgeons and residents has been increasing over the last few decades, but this is not reflected in the number of women authors in surgical infection publications. Despite the increase in the number of women surgeons, women are still underrepresented at more senior levels of academic surgery in the United States. The reasons for these differences require further research.