THE EVOLVING LANDSCAPE OF FEMALE REPRESENTATION IN OPHTHALMOLOGY RESIDENCY AND CLINICAL PRACTICE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48047/46atzn93Keywords:
Female Representation, Ophthalmology Residency, Gender Equity, Medical Training TrendsAbstract
Over the years, men have mostly filled the ranks of practicing ophthalmologists. Even though the number of female medical students has gone up for many years, it is still not clear if this is visible in women joining ophthalmology residencies. Our main goal is to look at the trends in gender representation for ophthalmology residency applicants and compare these with those found in other surgical specialties over the past two decades. Counts of male and female applicants who listed ophthalmology as their number one specialty and those who were successfully placed, were found from data collected by a national residency matching service. We used data that is publicly available and completed a retrospective cross-sectional study. Afterward, trends for female ophthalmology applicants and female ophthalmologists were compared with what was happening in other surgical fields. During the study, a larger number of women applied for transplant and the rate of women who matched increased too. Nevertheless, the data indicated no clear rising trend in these later periods. No significant pattern in match rates was found for male and female applicants. The numbers of women in applicants and practicing ophthalmologists matched the proportions found in other surgical specialties. Female presence among ophthalmology applicants is higher than it was in the past, though the latest data point to a pause and indicate that gender parity continues to elude ophthalmology. More investigation is required to find out about the main reasons behind persistent gender biases.
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