Gender and ethnic diversity in academic general surgery department leadership

Abstract

Background: Diversity in surgery has been shown to improve mentorship and patient care. Diversity has improved among general surgery (GS) trainees but is not the case for departmental leadership. We analyzed the race and gender distributions across leadership positions at academic GS programs.

Methods: Academic GS programs (n = 118) listed by the Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database Access system were included. Leadership positions were ascertained from department websites. Gender and race were determined through publicly provided data.

Results: Ninety-two (79.3%) department chairs were white and 99 (85.3%) were men. Additionally, 88 (74.6%) program directors and 34 (77.3%) vice-chairs of education were men. A higher proportion of associate program directors were women (38.5%). Of 787 division-chiefs, 73.4% were white. Only trauma had >10% representation from minority surgeons. Women represented >10% of division chiefs in colorectal, thoracic, pediatric, and plastic/burn surgery.

Conclusion: Diversity among GS trainees is not yet reflected in departmental leadership. Effort is needed to improve disparities in representation across leadership roles.

Keywords: Diversity; Ethnicity; Gender; General surgery; Leadership; Race.