Can State Family Support Policies Level the Playing Field for Early-Career Women in Plastic Surgery? An Analysis of Web-Scraped Data.

Abstract

For the young plastic surgeon, the quantity of first-author peer-reviewed publications plays a prominent role in job offers and promotions. Women surgeons carry a disproportionate share of family responsibilities, contributing to their lower representation in positions of leader- ship and influence. Policies protecting reproductive rights and mandating paid family leave (PFL) boost women's participation and productivity in the workplace. However, these policies vary by U.S., state and territory. Web-scraped publication data from all PubMed-indexed plastic surgery journals from 2010 to 2022 were evaluated by first-author gender and affiliated state reproductive rights policy and PFL. Female first authors were further compared with men by publication output (1 article; ≥ 2; ≥ 5) by gender and by affiliated state policies. Protective reproductive rights policies were associated with greater representation of female first authors (3.3 percentage points; p value = 0.003). Protective reproductive rights policies and PFL were associated with a decreased publication gender gap (0.13 articles, p value < 0.001, and 0.18 articles, p value < 0.001, respectively). Protective reproductive policies and PFL had an even greater correlation with higher publication output among female first authors. Protective reproductive rights and mandatory PFL are not only correlated with women's representation among early-career researchers but with a reduction in the publication gender gap. Legislation and policies aimed at supporting women's family responsibilities are associated with higher research productivity among women and likely play a significant role in attracting more women to higher academic ranks and improving gender equity in professional success in plastic surgery. This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .