Not all medical specialties are created (gender) equal On Amino, you can search for experienced doctors and indicate your preferences, like location, insurance accepted, and doctor's gender. But if you prefer to see a female doctor, you may have fewer options. Only 36% of all doctors on Amino are women. This reflects a nationwide trend—only a third of all active state-licensed doctors are women. Every September, the American Medical Association honors women in medicine. We decided to spend some time looking at Amino's doctor database to see what research we could add to the ongoing conversation. Our team looked at the gender breakdown of common medical specialties and confirmed some of the most well-documented trends. The big takeaways: The proportion of women entering medicine has more than doubled since 1980. More women practice pediatrics and gynecology than men—this is especially true for new doctors. There are still a handful of specialties without many female doctors, including orthopedic surgeons or urologists. Before I explain what we found, a quick note about our methodology. Amino’s health insurance claims database covers more than 900,000 doctors, and it includes information such as when and where the doctors graduated from medical school, what they specialize in, and their gender. For a portion of our analysis, we focused on the 25 specialties with the highest number of practicing doctors. For another portion of our analysis, we looked at all doctors (across all specialties) in their first year practicing medicine after graduating from medical school. Which medical specialities have the most (and fewest) female doctors? Here's the gender breakdown for the 25 most common medical specialties. This includes all doctors currently practicing medicine, regardless of when they started their practice. We found gender parity (a near 50/50 split) in only a handful of specialties, and female doctors outnumber males in only two: pediatrics and gynecology. How did we get here? Perhaps historical precedent is why we see greater proportions of female doctors in these two specialties. The American Pediatric Society explains that back in the late 1800s, when women first started entering careers in medicine, a "role in pediatrics was more acceptable." So many of the first female doctors in the U.S. focused on childcare and women’s health. We've come a long way since then. In general, more and more women are entering medicine. Thirty-five years ago, only 21% of all doctors in their first year of practice were women. By 2015, that number grew to 47%. This is confirmed by med school graduate reports, give or take a percent—according to Kaiser Health Foundation, women represented 48% of 2015 med school graduates. When you look at the data this way, it seems like medicine may be close to achieving gender parity. In fact, there are some specialties that are becoming predominantly female. Women make up more than 70% of doctors who entered into pediatrics, gynecology, and endocrinology in 2015, and more than 50% of dermatologists, family practitioners, pathologists, and psychiatrists. Does this mean that fewer men are becoming pediatricians, gynecologists, and endocrinologists? The data suggests yes. A lot has changed over the past 30 years. In 1980, women represented less than 30% of first-year doctors in 18 out of the top 25 specialties. By 2015, the list of specialties with less than 30% women has dwindled to 5: gastroenterology, cardiology, pain medicine, urology, and orthopedic surgery. Here's a GIF that shows what happened in between 1980 and 2015. We were going to name this GIF “Hallelujah, it’s raining women!” but decided against it. Another nixed title: “Where all the lady ortho surgeons at?” Why there may be fewer female doctors within certain specialties In Amino's database, women represent: Only 7% of all orthopedic surgeons; 15% of orthopedic surgeons beginning their practice in 2015 9% of urologists; 21% of urologists beginning their practice in 2015 13% of cardiologists; 25% of cardiologists beginning their practice in 2015 Why are there so few women working in these specialties? According to Mayo Clinic's Ian Mwangi, “There’s a stereotype that orthopedic surgeons are jocks, that the field requires brute strength.” There’s a lengthy feature article on Orthopedics Today that explores other reasons women aren’t entering orthopedics, including less exposure to the field in medical school, discouragement among advising faculty and deans, and the perception of poor work-life balance. NPR explains that there may be gender disparity among urologists because of a "misconception of the field ... that urologists treat male problems like prostate cancer and erectile dysfunction." Women seeking a career in cardiology face similar deterrents, including the “impairments to family planning, poor work-life balance, and perceived radiation risks,” according to this fellows' perspectivepublished in the Journal of American College of Cardiology. In most of my research, I found that a lack of female role models was also a key reason why more women didn’t enter these specialties, echoing a trend across industries. Doximity reports that women represent only 22% of physician leaders. Another discouraging trend is the massive pay gap between male and female doctors, even after adjusting for factors like age and experience. A recent study by the Journal of the American Medical Association (and reported by the New York Times) found the gap between male and female orthopedic surgeons to be a staggering $41,000, and $34,000 for cardiologists. Over an entire career, a gap like this could total over $1,000,000. While women earn less than men in 439 of 446 major U.S. occupations, medicine has a particularly large salary gap. For instance, the median pay gap between male and female physicians and surgeons is $74,427. In comparison, the gap between male and female lawyers is $28,119. The gap between male and female web developers is $7,846. We might see more women across all medical specialties over the coming years, but we still have a long way to go before achieving true gender parity. Have a perspective on this topic? I'd love to hear from you in the comments section! Source
