Gender and Subspecialty of Urology Faculty in Department-based Leadership Roles

Abstract

To characterize the current gender and subspecialty of those holding academic departmental administrative and educational leadership roles in urology. We conducted a cross-sectional observational study of U.S. Urology Residency Programs in 2016-2017. Inclusion criteria were participation in the Urology Residency Match Program and having a department of urology website. From June 1, 2016 to August 20, 2016, each department's website was queried. If information was missing or unclear, we reviewed faculty biographies and contacted residency program coordinators. We queried 124 urology residency programs. For administrative leadership roles, women comprised 3.3% of chairs, 4.5% of vice chairs, and 7.9% of division directors. For educational leadership roles, women comprised 9.4% of fellowship directors, 8.1% of residency directors, and 27.4% of medical student clerkship directors. The most common subspecialties for chairs included oncology (49.2%), endourology (16.4%), and female urology (7.4%). Among division directors, female urology had the highest representation of women (27.8%) followed by pediatric urology (9.8%), reconstruction (5%), endourology (4.3%), and andrology (4%). Overall, women are disproportionately underrepresented when it comes to educational and administrative positions of urology departmental leadership. There is also a wide yet narrowing gender gap as more women are pursuing careers in this field. Given this upward trend we may see more women in positions of leadership over time. Future efforts should be made to help promote the advancement of women to positions of leadership.