The report is based on data from the American Medical Association, the Census Bureau and a national resident database and tracking system. Overall, it covers about 950,000 physicians and physicians-in-training across 48 of the largest specialties in 2021, according to a Jan. 12 AAMC news release.
Out of the 946,790 actively practicing physicians, 351,117 are women and 595,673 are men, and female representation among all specialties varies widely. For example, within orthopedics, there are 1,090 female surgeons, comprising only 5.9 percent of the workforce, whereas women make up 65 percent of the pediatric workforce.
Here are the 10 specialties with the lowest proportion of female providers, starting with the lowest:
|
Specialty |
Total active providers |
No. of women |
Percentage of workforce |
|
1. Orthopedic surgery |
18,464 |
1,090 |
5.9% |
|
2. Sports medicine (orthopedic surgery) |
3,065 |
217 |
7.1% |
|
3. Interventional cardiology |
4,728 |
390 |
8.2% |
|
4. Thoracic surgery |
4,448 |
369 |
8.3% |
|
5. Neurological surgery |
5,744 |
551 |
9.6% |
|
6. Urology* |
10,077 |
1,003 |
10.0% |
|
6. Vascular and interventional radiology* |
4,010 |
399 |
10.0% |
|
8. Clinical cardiac electrophysiology |
2,626 |
266 |
10.1% |
|
9. Pulmonary disease |
4,866 |
616 |
12.7% |
|
10. Vascular surgery |
4,037 |
623 |
15.4% |
Editor’s note: *= tie
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