Gender Representation in U.S. Urogynecology Fellowship Program Leadership

The proportion of female physicians in the workforce has been steadily increasing, but the proportion of women in department leadership roles across the United States remains low. Urogynecology has the highest representation of women in leadership roles across obstetrics and gynecology and urology subspecialties; however, the proportion of women in leadership roles within urogynecology fellowship programs has not been described previously.

Our objective was to investigate gender representation within urogynecology fellowship program leadership positions.

This was a cross-sectional observational study where urogynecology fellowship program websites were queried for the geographic state as well as the gender expression of the program director and division chair.

A total of 68 American Council for Graduate Medical Education-accredited urogynecology fellowship programs were queried. Of these, 53 are obstetrics and gynecology-based programs and 15 are urology-based programs. Overall, women represent 67.6% of fellowship directors and 59.2% of division directors. One in 4 female fellowship directors concurrently hold the role of division chair. Women are significantly more likely to be fellowship directors in obstetrics and gynecology-based programs compared with urology-based urogynecology programs (75.4% versus 40.0%; odds ratio, 4.1; 95% confidence interval, 1.20-14.0). Women are also more likely to be division chairs in obstetrics and gynecology-based compared with urology-based urogynecology programs, although this did not reach statistical significance (63.4% versus 37.5%; odds ratio, 2.9, 95% confidence interval, 0.60-13.8).

Across urogynecology fellowship programs, women are the majority of division chairs and fellowship directors. However, female representation in leadership roles is lagging at urology-based urogynecology programs.