Women in Otolaryngology

Information collected and disseminated through the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) documents that women are currently entering medicine at a rate very similar to men. As recently as 1985, almost 75% of medical student graduates were male. Not surprisingly, men occupy appointments as full professors and associate professors far more often than women. On the surface of it, this may be reflective of the relatively smaller pool of women in medicine just two decades ago. However, the slope of growth in rank of women in surgery as recently as 2009 does not (11.89) equal the continuing growth in rank of men in surgery (42.79) [1]. A number of studies have been accomplished which suggest that gender may limit chances for promotion. Sexton et al. [2] surveyed surgical faculty at their institution. Women were far more likely to strongly agree or agree with the statement, “my gender limits my chance for promotion”. These data seem to sustain the observation that there does, in fact, exist a “glass ceiling” in academic surgery [3]. Medscape (2013) [4] supports the situation that was reported in April 2013 that male physicians, on average, are paid $60,000 per year more than women. The legal landscape in the United States holds that all individuals have equal protection under the law. Accordingly, it seems peculiar that we observe increasing numbers of female medical students and residents with no real change in representation of academic women surgeons at each faculty rank in the last 15 years. Additionally, the proportional representation of female full professors is unchanged over 35 years. Failure to fairly promote women into senior academic positions represents a lost opportunity to benefit from talent of all academic physicians.