Women's role in Orthopedic Training programs: What Proportion Do They Represent Today?

Abstract

Introduction

The objective of the study was to analyze all orthopedics residency programs of Argentina and determine:1)The proportion of females; 2) Social and demographics differences between genders: 3) The factors that influence positively or negatively in female decision to choose orthopedics.

Method

An observational and descriptive study was carried out in two phases. First phase: analyze the database of the “Argentine Orthopedic Association during the period 2016-2017. Second phase: a survey was developed and sent to all the orthopedic residents focus on demographics, social and job preferences questions.

Results and conclusion

A total of 933 residents were included for analysis. 121 (13%) were female and 812 (87%) were male. We got back 259 survey responses. We found statistically significant differences in terms of marriage or in union: female (16%) vs male (42 %) (p< 0.001); paternity (23.3%) vs maternity (4.5%) (p< 0.001). We observed that female mainly prefer pediatrics, foot and ankle and hand, while the primary choice of men is arthroplasty and arthroscopy. Focus on women analysis, the three main reasons that led them to choose the orthopedics residency program were: avidity for manual work (59%), personal desire (56%) and positive experience in orthopedics during the university (56%). The negative factors that influence female to choose an orthopedic training program are mainly related with the idea of physical demand and a male predominant work environment. In Argentina, women represent only 13% of all the orthopedics residents and this number is similar to other international reports.