Women in cardiac surgery: a global workforce analysis

Area of Science:

• Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Medical Workforce Diversity
• Global Health Equity

Background:

• Cardiac surgery faces significant gender imbalance, with women underrepresented globally.
• Existing data on women cardiac surgeons (WCS) is scarce, hindering understanding of workforce diversity.
• Surgeon-patient gender concordance is linked to improved postoperative outcomes, underscoring the need for equitable representation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide the first global quantification of women cardiac surgeons (WCS).
• To explore factors correlating with workforce diversity in cardiac surgery.
• To identify regional and economic disparities in female representation within the field.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the Cardiothoracic Surgery Network database, cross-validated with external sources.
• Determined surgeon sex using profile pronouns and the genderize.io application.
• Stratified data by country, region, and income, performing correlation analyses with socioeconomic and gender parity metrics.

Main Results:

• Women constitute 8.0% of the international cardiac surgical workforce.
• North America and Europe show higher representation (11.4% and 10.3%) compared to East Asia (2.9%) and the Middle East (1.7%).
• High-income countries have double the proportion of WCS (9.9%) compared to low- and middle-income countries (4.8%), with none in low-income nations. Representation correlates with GNI per capita, Global Gender Gap Index, and health expenditure.

Conclusions:

• Improving female representation in cardiac surgery is crucial for social justice and patient care.
• Significant global disparities persist, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
• Addressing inequities requires targeted mentorship and country-specific strategies to overcome entry barriers.