Two Decades at 21%: Unchanging Gender Disparities in Rhinology Fellowships

BackgroundThe representation of women in otolaryngology has increased significantly over recent decades, yet discrepancies remain in certain subspecialties, including rhinology. Despite overall improvements in gender equity within otolaryngology, the specific demographic trends and scholarly productivity of fellowship-trained rhinologists have not been thoroughly examined.ObjectiveWe aimed to address this gap by examining demographic trends and academic productivity among rhinology fellowship graduates.MethodsThis cross-sectional study examined publicly available data to analyze fellowship-trained rhinologists in the United States, focusing on gender, career stage, practice setting, h-index, and academic rank. Statistical analyses included Fischer's exact test, Wilcoxon rank sum test, ANOVA, and η².ResultsWe included 477 fellowship-trained rhinologists who trained at 31 fellowships. No gender differences in career stage or practice type were found. Despite an absolute increase in women per year (0 to 9, η² = 0.65), the percentage of women in rhinology fellowships has plateaued since 2002 (η² = 0.001), averaging 21.1% (SD = 10.8%). Most fellowship-trained rhinologists were mid-career, with a median of 7 practice years; 55% worked in academics, mainly as assistant professors. Overall, women rhinologists had a slightly lower h-index than men (7 vs 9; P = .01), but when stratified by academic rank, there was no difference in h-index between men and women.ConclusionThe percentage of women fellowship-trained rhinologists has not increased since 2002 (η² = 0.001), remaining at a mean of 21.1%. Contrasting with other subspecialties, women and men rhinologists have similar h-indices by academic rank. However, there are still fewer women in rhinology overall than men.