Striding Towards Balance: Exploring Gender Representation and Regional Patterns in Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Specialists

Abstract

Category: Other Introduction/Purpose: Women have historically been underrepresented across all tiers of orthopedic surgery training. While it's widely acknowledged that a greater presence of women in faculty roles within foot and ankle fellowship programs correlates positively with the number of fellowship trainees, there remains a paucity of quantitative data on the representation of women at the foot and ankle subspecialty level. Although there may be a growing number of women participating in foot and ankle fellowship programs, this alone does not necessarily indicate improved gender representation, as statistical trends may be influenced by shifts in specialty preferences among applicants over recent decades. This study aims to address this gap by examining gender diversity among members of the American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society. Methods: This cross-sectional study examined members of the American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society (AOFAS) using the publicly accessible "Find a Doctor" page as of January 2024. Baseline data on gender, state, region, and year of graduation were collected. Specifically, the years of graduation were categorized into two periods: before and after 2013, enabling an evaluation of gender trends over the past decade. Gender information for each fellow was obtained from Healthgrades, while graduation year data were sourced from databases like AOFAS and professional profiles. Descriptive statistics were utilized to analyze baseline fellow data. This approach aimed to provide insights into the gender dynamics and temporal trends within the AOFAS membership, shedding light on potential shifts in the composition of orthopaedic foot and ankle specialists over time. Results: As of January 2024, our analysis revealed a total of 965 foot and ankle surgeons. Among them, 87.7% (847 out of 965) were men, while 12.3% (118 out of 965) were women. Prior to 2013, women accounted for 9.1% of the total, with men comprising 90.9%. Over the past decade, the representation of women nearly doubled to 17.3%, while men still dominated at 82.7%. Regional distribution of women surgeons was as follows: Midwest - 19% (n=22), Northeast - 22% (n=26), South - 36% (n=42), and West - 24% (n=28). Conclusion: While the representation of women in foot and ankle subspecialties is on the rise nationwide, a notable gender disparity persists. Over one-third of women foot and ankle surgeons are located in the South region. We suggest that future efforts focus on enhancing the consistency and quality of publicly accessible information regarding women surgeons in foot and ankle fellowship programs. Presently, there is no centralized, publicly available source of information on the gender distribution of applicants to foot and ankle fellowship programs and the allocation of positions filled.