Gender Distribution of Current Surgical Critical Care Fellows, Faculty, and Program Directors

Abstract

As women surgeons continue to represent a minority within the surgical field while also holding lower ranked positions, gaining a sub-specialized set of clinical skills through surgical fellowships, like surgical critical care (SCC), is one approach to advance within the surgical field. A cross-sectional analysis was performed investigating the websites of all 106 US-based SCC fellowships. A total of 116 SCC fellows were included in this analysis, comprising 67 (59.3%) men and 46 (40.7%) women. There were 977 SCC fellowship faculty were evaluated, comprising 619 (67.9%) men and 292 (32.1%) women. Additionally, 103 SCC fellowship program directors were analyzed, consisting of 77 (74.8%) men and 26 (25.2%) women. There is a significantly lower proportion of women fellows and faculty members (P < .001) compared to men. SCC programs with female program directors on average have higher proportions of female fellows and faculty compared to programs with male program directors (52% and 36% vs 31% and 29%, respectively). There is a stable yet unbalanced gender distribution throughout all positions in SCC fellowship programs. Actively supporting women surgeons pursuing SCC fellowship and removing barriers to their advancement through effective interventions can disrupt the persistently low prevalence of women SCC fellows, faculty, and program directors.