Women make up the smallest percentage of orthopedic surgery practitioners. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, only 5 percent of orthopedic surgeons are women. Aside from lesser representation, women orthopedic surgery practitioners face other disparities in the field.
1. While men orthopedists earn on average $507,000 per year, women orthopedists earn on average considerably less at $364,000 a year, according to Medscape’s 2018 Orthopedist Compensation Report. The report notes although women are more likely to work part-time than men, Medscape only factored in full-time salaries when accounting for the difference.
2. Fifty-three percent of both men and women orthopedists reported they were employed, which also doesn’t explain the disparity in income between the groups, the report said.
3. According to Medscape’s 2018 Female Physician Compensation Report, only 42 percent of women orthopedists felt they were fairly compensated.
4. In a 2016 survey of over 200 women orthopedic surgeons, published in Clinical Orthopedics and Related Research, nearly 70 percent cited the lack of mentorship in medical school as a reason why women might not choose to go into the orthopedics field. Furthermore, the study pointed out that while women make up about half of the medical students in the U.S., only 13 percent of them are orthopedic surgery residents.