Status of Women in Academic Ophthalmology

Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate the status of women in academic ophthalmology in the United States and compare this to academic clinical departments in other clinical specialties. Methods The study reviewed data from the American Association of Medical Colleges for the years 2003 to 2017. The number and percentage of women at different ranks, as well as number of women Chairs of clinical academic departments, were collected by specialty. The number of women residents from 2007 to 2017 was obtained from datasets published by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Trends of the percentage of women at different ranks were compared. Results The percentage of women residents in ophthalmology has remained constant at around 42%, although it has declined slightly over the last 3 years. On the other hand, the number of women faculty in academic ophthalmology has gradually increased from 24 to 34% over 15 years. This increase has largely been at the Assistant Professor rank, with only a modest increase at the Professor rank. Discussion The percentage of women in ophthalmology continues to lag behind the average for all clinical departments at every level. While this gender disparity is rapidly closing for Assistant Professors and slowly closing for Associate Professors and Chairs, it is widening for Professors. This demonstrates that women in ophthalmology are making some strides but are not being promoted to Professor at the same rate as other specialties. This may be the result of explicit and implicit biases, as well as phenomena such as imposter syndrome that are more common in women.