Perceptions of women medical students and their influence on career choice

Neumayer, Leigh; Kaiser, Susan B.; Anderson, Kimberly; Barney, Linda M.; Curet, Myriam J.; Jacobs, Donald M.; Lynch, Thomas G.; Gazak, Christine

doi:10.1016/s0002-9610(01)00863-7

Cited by 198 publications

(129 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…The participation of women faculty members has been postulated to be a factor in the uneven distribution of woman orthopaedic residents in the United States [22]. Representation of women on faculty has been associated with whether women medical students choose surgery as a career [14]. These data are concordant with prior work that suggests an absence of a ''critical mass'' of women may dissuade female applicants from choosing a given field or residency program [22,24].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

Where Are the Women in Orthopaedic Surgery?

Rohde

Wolf

Adams

2016

Clinical Orthopaedics &Amp; Related Research

257

200

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Background Although women account for approximately half of the medical students in the United States, they represent only 13% of orthopaedic surgery residents and 4% of members of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS). Furthermore, a smaller relative percentage of women pursue careers in orthopaedic surgery than in any other subspecialty. Formal investigations regarding the gender discrepancy in choice of orthopaedic surgery are lacking. Questions/purposes (1) What reasons do women orthopaedic surgeons cite for why they chose this specialty? (2) What perceptions do women orthopaedic surgeons think might deter other women from pursuing this field? (3) What role does early exposure to orthopaedics and mentorship play in this choice? (4) What professional and personal choices do women in orthopaedics make, and how might this inform students who are choosing a career path? Methods A 21-question survey was emailed to all active, candidate, and resident members of the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society (RJOS, n = 556). RJOS is the oldest surgical women's organization incorporated in the United States. An independent orthopaedic specialty society, RJOS supports leadership training, mentorship, grant opportunities, and advocacy for its members and promotes sex-related musculoskeletal research. Although not all women in orthopaedic practice or training belong to RJOS, it is estimated that 42% of women AAOS fellows are RJOS members. Questions were formulated to determine demographics, practice patterns, and lifestyle choices of women who chose orthopaedic surgery as a specialty. Specifically, we evaluated the respondents' decisions about their careers and their opinions of why more women do not choose this field. For the purpose of this analysis, the influences and dissuaders were divided into three major categories: personal attributes, experience/exposure, and work/life considerations. Results The most common reasons cited for having chosen orthopaedic surgery were enjoyment of manual tasks (165 of

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

Where Are the Women in Orthopaedic Surgery?

Rohde

Wolf

Adams

2016

Clinical Orthopaedics &Amp; Related Research

257

200

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“…106,107,115 Furthermore, mentorship of female and under-represented minority medical students has been shown to lead to similar increases in student interest in surgical careers. 19,22,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]137 Program diversity is an important consideration for medical students, and we posit that mentorship may allow for honest discussion of diversity in surgery and can also create a more welcoming environment for medical students who see themselves as "outsiders" in surgical settings. 22,137 Mentorship in surgery may also be beneficial because it allows students to become familiar with the personalities of potential future colleagues.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Eleven cross-sectional studies studying the impact of same-gender role models were identified in our search. 19,22,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] An AHRQ grade of moderate strength was awarded to this body of evidence, with a mean Newcastle-Ottawa score of 7.5. It has been shown that residency programs appearing to lack diversity are unappealing to women and other self-reported underrepresented minorities.…”

Section: Gender Discriminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A systematic review of the factors affecting choice of surgery as a career

Peel

Schlachta

Alkhamesi

2018

cjs

190

129

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A systematic review of the factors affecting choice of surgery as a careerBackground: Interest in surgical careers among medical students has declined over the past decade. Multiple explanations have been offered for why top students are deterred or rejected from surgical programs, though no consensus has emerged. Methods:We conducted a review of the literature to better characterize what factors affect the pursuit of a surgical career. We searched PubMed and EMBASE and performed additional reference checks. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and Newcastle-Ottawa Education scores were used to evaluate the included data.Results: Our search identified 122 full-text, primary articles. Analysis of this evidence identified 3 core concepts that impact surgical career decision-making: gender, features of surgical education, and student "fit" in the culture of surgery. Conclusion:Real and perceived gender discrimination has deterred female medical students from entering surgical careers. In addition, limited exposure to surgery during medical school and differences between student and surgeon personality traits and values may deter students from entering surgical careers. We suggest that deliberate and visible effort to include women and early-career medical students in surgical settings may enhance their interest in carreers in surgery.Contexte : On constate que l'intérêt pour une carrière en chirurgie a décliné chez les étudiants en médecine depuis une dizaine d'années. Plusieurs raisons ont été invoquées pour expliquer le désintérêt des étudiants talentueux à l'égard des programmes de chirurgie ou leur rejet de ces programmes, sans qu'on en arrive à un consensus.

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“…The presence of strong relatable role models is commonly identified as a crucial element in the specialty choices of medical students [12,13,14,15]. Studies in multiple medical specialties including radiology have shown that women, more so than their male counterparts, were found to rate role models as highly valuable resources for the selection of career specialties [12,13,14].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies in multiple medical specialties including radiology have shown that women, more so than their male counterparts, were found to rate role models as highly valuable resources for the selection of career specialties [12,13,14]. Some authors have suggested that it is the lack of visible female role models in male gendered specialties that makes it difficult for female medical students to visualize themselves in those professions [7,8].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Mentorship and Networking Group for Women in Radiology

Ladd

Bonaminio

Gonda

et al. 2017

Journal of the American College of Radiology

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THE PROBLEM: TOO FEW FEMALE ROLE MODELS IN RADIOLOGYWomen are underrepresented in radiology [1]. A 2014 study found that the percentages of female practicing radiologists (23.5%), academic radiology faculty (26.1%), radiology residents (27.8%), and radiology applicants (28.1%) were all substantially below the percentage of women graduating from medical school in the United States (48.3%) [2]. Additionally, of the twenty largest residency training programs in the US, radiology ranked ninth for overall size but only seventeenth for female representation [2].As the medical field has become increasingly diverse, radiology has failed to keep pace.Over the last four decades, the percentage of female radiologists in the United States has held steady in the low to mid-20s [2,3,4,5]. Many studies have been conducted in recent years to better understand the forces behind the apparent gendering of certain medical specialties, a term which reflects the overwhelming predominance of women in some specialties such as pediatrics and obstetrics-gynecology and men in others such as radiology and orthopedic surgery [6,7,8].Although these studies failed to reveal conclusive evidence as to the causes, they managed to uncover potential contributing factors, such as the presence of gender bias in certain specialties, cultural differences between the sexes, and the presence or lack of identifiable role models in different fields [6,7,8,9]. The forces that produce gender disparity in medical specialties are

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Perceptions of women medical students and their influence on career choice

Cited by 198 publications

References 7 publications

Where Are the Women in Orthopaedic Surgery?

Where Are the Women in Orthopaedic Surgery?

A systematic review of the factors affecting choice of surgery as a career

A Mentorship and Networking Group for Women in Radiology

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