Orthopedics Remains Male Dominated Specialty

Men dominate orthopedic surgery but women are catching up—sort of. Orthopedics has the lowest percentage of women in a surgical specialty—with women making up only 4.3% of board-certified orthopedic surgeons, according to Mary I. O’Connor, M.D., Chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.

In a piece in the August 3 Huffington Post, O’Connor notes that women used to avoid orthopedics under the impression that orthopedic surgeons required a great deal of physical strength to maneuver fractured or dislocated bones and joints back into place. While that might have been true decades ago, advances in medical equipment have shifted the primary requisites from brute strength to manual dexterity, mechanical ability and an aptitude for three-dimensional visualization.

So what is holding back women? An unpublished study by Charles Day, M.D., suggests that the “jock/frat culture” is the greatest detractor from women choosing an orthopedic surgical residency. Day observed that female orthopedic residents were more likely to choose a residency in general surgery because it would be “less physically demanding” and “easier to match into.” At least that is what the male residents told the inquiring Day.

Women now account for almost half of all medical school graduates. The presence of women in orthopedic residency programs has increased nearly five-fold over the past 30 years, yet only 14% of today’s orthopedic residents are female.

Both male and female respondents agreed that the lack of female role models in orthopedics is a barrier to women entering the field. And while residents of both genders identified the availability of a role model in the specialty as an important decision-making factor, females were twice as likely to cite the importance of a role model of the same gender or ethnicity. Women orthopedic residents were also twice as likely to cite a perceived lack of acceptance by senior faculty as a barrier to their entering the field.

As the population ages, the need for orthopedic surgeons will increase. According to O’Connor, in order to attract the best and the brightest, orthopedics needs to become more attractive to women students. She noted that several organizations have been created to increase the number of women in orthopedic surgery

The Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society, named after the first female orthopedic surgeon in the United States, was the first. It was organized as a support and networking group for women orthopedic surgeons and now includes both female and male orthopedic surgeons as well as orthopedists-in-training and interested medical students. It offers a mentoring program and has published a guide to assist women in their transition from medical school to residency and throughout their careers.