Introduction: The world lacks female leaders, same is true of transplant academia. This study looks at the status of leadership and dissects the various layers that conceal the disparity pervasive in the transplant community.
Method: Studies from the last 8 years on gender disparities in transplant surgery leadership from pubmed and google scholar were analysed.
Results: Studies revealed that women play a minor role in academic leadership. Data from 2019 revealed that 50.5% of medical school matriculate were women. Most faculty positions were held by males. An AJS study published in 2022 revealed that women hold 25% of the faculty position with 3% full professors, 4.4% associate professors, 13% assistant professors. Studies published across transplant journals report a deficiency in female leadership in key decision making positions with women holding just 1/3rd of the leadership in transplantation. Study published in TTS on leadership positions in transplant journals revealed that 29.7% of editorial board leaders, 11.8% of chief editor position were women. To reduce discrepancy TTS has created women in transplant to address the issue. Data on Asian leadership showed 14.7% of editorial leaders, 32.4% of transplantation organization leaders were women. ILTS reported 13.2% of the transplant centers as having at least one woman director or chief. ASTS had only 20% female representation in its council, out of 26 positions at ILTS, 7 were held by women. TSANZ reported 45.8% of its members as females yet only had 1 female representative in its 8 person council. Women are often over looked for key leadership positions. It was observed that both male and female led selection committees exhibited bias towards female applicants. Women had to produce more to achieve promotion and those who were successful in a male gender typed domain were often penalized. A male led committee often funded more male researchers there by reducing female representation. Studies revealed that females leaders mentored more female researchers. A JAMA review from 2018 showed that overall salary gap reduced from -2.6% to -1.9%. Another study reported female surgeons had lesser post operative complications at 90 days and 1 year following surgery.
Conclusion: Diversity is key to making strides in transplant field. Promoting female leadership will open new opportunities and ideas advancing humankind.