The Perry Initiative: Building the Pipeline for Women in Orthopaedics

Abstract

rthopaedic surgery is one of the least gender-diverse medical specialties, with approximately 6% women in practice 1 and 14% in residency. 2 The percentage of women in orthopaedic surgery has grown slowly from a handful of pioneers in the 1950s and 60s to its present census of approximately 1,100 board-certified women orthopaedic surgeons. 1 This slow growth runs counter to gender demographics in medicine at large, 2 with women now entering and completing medical school at equal rates to their male colleagues. 3 The practice of orthopaedics also relies heavily on engineering to design, manufacture, and evaluate the safety of innovative medical technologies. The field most closely aligned with orthopaedic device development, namely, mechanical engineering, also struggles with issues of gender diversity, having reached a historical steady-state high of 11% female in the early 2000s. 4,5 Similar to the medical professions, women high school students are equivalently or even more qualified to pursue high-impact STEM careers, like engineering, than their male counterparts based on high school and early college performance indicators. 6,7 The reasons for persistent gender disparities in these two interrelated professions are well established and can be distilled down to two core issues: perceptions of the professional culture and early exposure and mentoring. In orthopaedic surgery, the literature shows that perceptions of both a malecentric jock culture and poor work-life balance deter women from pursuing orthopaedic residency. [8][9][10] Men are also more likely than women to have exposure to orthopaedics before medical school, 10 and with musculoskeletal care in general (and orthopaedic surgery in particular) not being an emphasis, medical school curriculum is unlikely to remedy exposure disparities. 9,10 In engineering, the primary driver of the gender imbalance is similarly perceptions of a male-centric nerd culture in both training and professional practice. 11 Secondary drivers include disparities in the rates of women completing optional high school physics, programming, and technology courses, which are a natural feeder for engineering programs. 11 For the past 12 years, The Perry Initiative, a nonprofit organization, has been focused on addressing gender disparities in orthopaedics by conducting outreach programs for women high school, college, and medical students. The organization, which started as a grassroots movement, now serves over 1,600 women per year at 401 sites across the country. This article presents the history, growth, and effect of the organization and its future plans as it heads into its second decade of continuous programming.

Match Rates Among Underrepresented Minority and Female Applicants to Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Programs from 2011 to 2021

“…To help address issues of underrepresentation in orthopaedics, a number of professional organizations and mentorship networks have been created. The Ruth Jackson Society was founded in 1983 with a goal of increasing the number of women in orthopaedic surgery by providing education, mentorship, and networking opportunities and working to ensure that women in the field have equal opportunities for advancement and recognition [11][12][13] . The Perry Initiative is a national organization that aims to inspire young women to pursue careers in orthopaedic surgery and engineering 14 .…”