Women make up 37.1 percent of the physician workforce, according to the Association of American Medical College's "2022 Physician Specialty Data Report."
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
At the same time, the majority of actively practicing pediatricians, OB-GYNs and eight other specialties are women.
Here are the 10 specialties with a majority of female providers, starting with the specialty with the largest majority:
|
Specialty |
Total active providers |
No. of women |
Percentage of workforce |
|
1. Pediatrics |
60,252 |
39,189 |
65.0% |
|
2. Obstetrics and gynecology |
42,459 |
25,682 |
60.5% |
|
3. Pediatric hematology/oncology |
3,176 |
1,768 |
55.7% |
|
4. Geriatric medicine |
6,143 |
3,382 |
55.1% |
|
5. Child and adolescent psychiatry |
9,961 |
5,441 |
54.6% |
|
6. Neonatal-perinatal medicine |
6,052 |
3,281 |
54.2% |
|
7. Internal medicine/pediatrics |
5,699 |
3,044 |
53.4% |
|
8. Endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism |
8,234 |
4,367 |
53.0% |
|
9. Dermatology |
12,756 |
6,665 |
52.2% |
|
10. Pediatric anesthesiology |
2,836 |
1,455 |
51.3% |