Mentorship, Sponsorship, and Leadership for Women in Cardiothoracic Surgery: A Qualitative Analysis

Gender disparities are well described in cardiothoracic surgery. However, qualitative data highlighting women's lived experiences are lacking. We aimed to explore women's experiences with mentorship, sponsorship, and leadership in cardiothoracic surgery.

We conducted virtual semistructured interviews with surgeons who were women in practice for ≥5 years across the United States from September 2024 to December 2024. The interview asked questions pertaining to women's experiences with mentorship, sponsorship, leadership pathways, and leadership roles. Interviews were transcribed, coded, and analyzed using the thematic analysis approach.

Participants (N = 25) included thoracic (40%), adult cardiac (36%), and congenital (16%) surgeons with 13 median years in practice. Most (84%) currently practiced in an academic setting. There were 6 main themes: (1) losing mentorship and never finding sponsorship-mentorship wanes after early career, and sponsorship often is never found; (2) looking elsewhere-women look outside their home institutions for sponsorship; (3) needing he-for-she-men have an important role to play as sponsors; (4) breaking imposter syndrome with sponsorship-sponsorship helps overcome leadership imposter syndrome; (5) circling the service drain-an overburden of work without title or compensation impedes leadership attainment; and (6) being the boss, but not bossy-women face double standards as leaders that may increase the challenges of leadership.

These findings suggest the need to increase cross-gender sponsorship, create support systems for career development within institutions, provide transparency in pay and promotion structures, and develop leadership training tailored to the unique obstacles women may face in order to combat identified barriers.