When a Specialty Becomes "Women's Work": Trends in and Implications of Specialty Gender Segregation in Medicine.

Even after 20 years of near gender parity among medical students, the gender composition of physician specialties varies dramatically with some becoming increasingly female-predominant while others remain overwhelmingly male. In their analysis of physician workforce data, the authors demonstrate that despite large increases in the number of female physicians over 4 decades, the degree of gender segregation between specialties has not declined. The authors describe lessons from the highly gender-segregated U.S. workforce as a whole to understand these demographic patterns in the physician workforce. Echoing U.S. workforce findings, women physicians are becoming overrepresented in certain specialties and this appears be associated with a relative decline in earnings for physicians in these specialties over time. The authors found a strong negative relationship between the proportion of female physicians in a specialty and its mean salary, with gender composition explaining 64% of the variation in salaries among the medical specialties.Female physicians face biases in the workplace and fall behind male peers in leadership attainment, academic advancement, and earnings. Tenacious gender stereotypes and the conflation of gender and status contribute to these biases and reinforce occupational gender segregation. The clustering of women in certain specialties means these specialties will be disproportionately affected by gender bias. Recognizing the consequences of gender demographics within physician specialties is important to maintain the strong and diverse physician workforce needed to support the health care needs of the populations who depend on these specialties for care.

• Publication year

  2020

• Venue

  Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges

• Publication date

  2020-06-23

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Sociology, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1097/ACM.0000000000003555PMID 32590470PMCID PMC7541620
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Changes in Burnout and Satisfaction With Work-Life Integration in Physicians and the General US Working Population Between 2011 and 2020.

  2022cited by this paper
• Sex Differences in Salaries of Department Chairs at Public Medical Schools.

  2020cited by this paper
• Promising Practices for Addressing the Underrepresentation of Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine

  2020cited by this paper
• Barriers to Pursuing a Career in Surgery

  2019cited by this paper
• Changes in Burnout and Satisfaction With Work-Life Integration in Physicians and the General US Working Population Between 2011 and 2017.

  2019cited by this paper
• THINK ENTREPRENEUR – THINK MALE: UNFOLDING THE GENDERED CHARACTERIZATION OF REQUISITE MANAGERIAL, LEADERSHIP, AND ENTREPRENEURIAL TRAITS

  2018cited by this paper
• Worth Less?: Why Men (and Women) Devalue Care-Oriented Careers

  2018cited by this paper
• Patient–physician gender concordance and increased mortality among female heart attack patients

  2018cited by this paper
• EDITION

  2018cited by this paper
• Gender Differences in Academic Medicine: Retention, Rank, and Leadership Comparisons From the National Faculty Survey

  2018cited by this paper
• Achieving Gender Equity in Physician Compensation and Career Advancement: A Position Paper of the American College of Physicians

  2018cited by this paper
• The American College of Physicians Is Working Hard to Achieve Gender Equity, and Everyone Will Benefit

  2018cited by this paper
• The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap. Fall 2018 Edition.

  2018cited by this paper
• It Is Time for Zero Tolerance for Sexual Harassment in Academic Medicine.

  2017cited by this paper
• Comparison of Hospital Mortality and Readmission Rates for Medicare Patients Treated by Male vs Female Physicians

  2017cited by this paper
• Can I Work with and Help Others in This Field? How Communal Goals Influence Interest and Participation in STEM Fields

  2017cited by this paper
• Comparison of postoperative outcomes among patients treated by male and female surgeons: a population based matched cohort study

  2017cited by this paper
• Why Are Some STEM Fields More Gender Balanced Than Others?

  2017cited by this paper
• Since surgery isn't getting any easier, why is reimbursement going down? An update from the SGO taskforce on coding and reimbursement.

  2017cited by this paper
• Differences in words used to describe racial and gender groups in Medical Student Performance Evaluations

  2017cited by this paper
• Comparison of 2015 Medicare relative value units for gender-specific procedures: Gynecologic and gynecologic-oncologic versus urologic CPT coding. Has time healed gender-worth?

  2017cited by this paper
• Gender stereotypes about intellectual ability emerge early and influence children’s interests

  2017cited by this paper
• Female Physicians and the Future of Endocrinology.

  2016cited by this paper
• Sex Differences in Physician Salary in US Public Medical Schools.

  2016cited by this paper
• The Times They Are a-Changing … or Are They Not? A Comparison of Gender Stereotypes, 1983–2014

  2016cited by this paper
• Committee on Pediatric Workforce

  2016cited by this paper
• Barriers to becoming a female surgeon and the influence of female surgical role models

  2016cited by this paper
• Why is John More Likely to Become Department Chair Than Jennifer?

  2015cited by this paper
• Gender Segregation in Occupations: The Role of Tipping and Social Interactions

  2015cited by this paper
• Condoning stereotyping? How awareness of stereotyping prevalence impacts expression of stereotypes.

  2015cited by this paper
• The Effect of an Intervention to Break the Gender Bias Habit for Faculty at One Institution: A Cluster Randomized, Controlled Trial

  2015cited by this paper
• How Patient-Centered Do Female Physicians Need to Be? Analogue Patients’ Satisfaction With Male and Female Physicians’ Identical Behaviors

  2015cited by this paper
• Changes in Burnout and Satisfaction With Work-Life Balance in Physicians and the General US Working Population Between 2011 and 2014.

  2015cited by this paper
• Expectations of brilliance underlie gender distributions across academic disciplines

  2015cited by this paper
• Cultural stereotypes as gatekeepers: increasing girls’ interest in computer science and engineering by diversifying stereotypes

  2015cited by this paper
• The clinical endocrinology workforce: current status and future projections of supply and demand.

  2014cited by this paper
• Gender Differences in Time Spent on Parenting and Domestic Responsibilities by High-Achieving Young Physician-Researchers

  2014cited by this paper
• Afraid of Being “Witchy With a ‘B’”: A Qualitative Study of How Gender Influences Residents’ Experiences Leading Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

  2014cited by this paper
• Occupational Segregation and the Gender Wage Gap: A Job Half Done

  2014cited by this paper
• Pediatrician Workforce Policy Statement

  2013cited by this paper
• Patient-Centered Care: The Influence of Patient and Resident Physician Gender and Gender Concordance in Primary Care

  2012cited by this paper
• Gender differences in the salaries of physician researchers.

  2012cited by this paper
• Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students

  2012cited by this paper
• Do Students' and Authors' Genders Affect Evaluations? A Linguistic Analysis of Medical Student Performance Evaluations

  2011cited by this paper
• When Does Gender Matter?

  2011cited by this paper
• Gender Differences in Academic Productivity and Leadership Appointments of Physicians Throughout Academic Careers

  2011cited by this paper
• Evidence that gendered wording in job advertisements exists and sustains gender inequality.

  2011cited by this paper
• Malleability in communal goals and beliefs influences attraction to stem careers: evidence for a goal congruity perspective.

  2011cited by this paper
• The $16,819 pay gap for newly trained physicians: the unexplained trend of men earning more than women.

  2011cited by this paper
• Separate and Not Equal ? Gender Segregation in the Labor Market and the Gender Wage Gap

  2010cited by this paper
• Disruptions in Women's Self-Promotion: The Backlash Avoidance Model 1

  2010cited by this paper
• Seeking Congruity Between Goals and Roles

  2010cited by this paper
• Commentary: deconstructing gender difference.

  2010cited by this paper
• Internal Medicine Resident Self-report of Factors Associated with Career Decisions

  2009cited by this paper
• Physicians as parents: parenting experiences of physicians in Newfoundland and Labrador.

  2009cited by this paper
• Interventions That Affect Gender Bias in Hiring: A Systematic Review

  2009cited by this paper
• Occupational Feminization and Pay: Assessing Causal Dynamics Using 1950-2000 U.S. Census Data

  2009cited by this paper
• How do race and sex affect the earnings of primary care physicians?

  2009cited by this paper
• Competent Yet Out in the Cold: Shifting Criteria for Hiring Reflect Backlash Toward Agentic Women

  2008cited by this paper
• Workforce Segregation and the Gender Wage Gap: Is “Women's” Work Valued as Highly as “Men's”?

  2008cited by this paper
• Why Are Some Academic Fields Tipping Toward Female? The Sex Composition of U.S. Fields of Doctoral Degree Receipt, 1971–2002

  2007cited by this paper
• Why are women penalized for success at male tasks?: the implied communality deficit.

  2007cited by this paper
• The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy

  2007cited by this paper
• Gender: macho language and other deterrents

  2006cited by this paper
• Race and gender differences in general internists’ annual incomes

  2006cited by this paper
• Physician gender and patient-centered communication: a critical review of empirical research.

  2004cited by this paper
• Social influence: compliance and conformity.

  2004cited by this paper
• Compensation and Advancement of Women in Academic Medicine: Is There Equity?

  2004cited by this paper
• Competency-based student self-assessment on a surgery rotation.

  2002cited by this paper
• Gender, Status, and Leadership

  2001cited by this paper
• Salary Equity among Male and Female Internists in Pennsylvania

  2000cited by this paper
• Gender-Stereotypic Images of Occupations Correspond to the Sex Segregation of Employment

  1999cited by this paper
• Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the U.S. 1997/98

  1998cited by this paper
• Status, communality, and agency: implications for stereotypes of gender and other groups.

  1996cited by this paper
• Sharing of home responsibilities between professionally employed women and their husbands.

  1991cited by this paper
• Physician incomes and work patterns across specialties: 1975 and 1983-84

  1988cited by this paper
• The Association of American Medical Colleges

  1938cited by this paper

• Nuanced Differences, Profound Impact: A Comparative Learning-Enhanced Knowledge Graph Recommender for Expert Identification in Specialized Medical Fields

  2026cites this paper
• Nursing at the Intersection of Power and Practice: A Grounded Theory Analysis of the Profession's Social Position.

  2025cites this paper
• Mental Health Issues among Physicians in Saudi Arabia: A Scoping Review

  2025cites this paper
• Career Success and Gender Occupational Minorities: Reconstructing Gendered Notions of Career Success

  2025cites this paper
• Gender differences in factors influencing specialty choice in obstetrics and gynecology: A national survey of graduating senior residents

  2025cites this paper
• Does Malpractice Risk Deter Medical Students From Pursuing Obstetrics and Gynecology?

  2025cites this paper
• Structural inequities and provider burnout in maternal health in the United States.

  2025cites this paper
• Global Trends and Cross-Country Differences in Authorship by Women in Academic Anaesthesiology Since 1996: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Analysis

  2025cites this paper
• Women of Color and Intersectionality Initiative: A Workgroup Report on the Continued Need to Support and Retain Women of Color

  2025cites this paper
• Gender-Based Disparities in Academic Orthopaedic Surgery Physician Compensation in 2023

  2025cites this paper
• The missing data: A review of gender and sex disparities in research

  2025cites this paper
• Can they blame it on the final? How does medical final exam and other factors shape specialty choice?

  2025cites this paper
• A Commitment to Gender Equity in Medicine: An American Medical Women’s Association Position Paper

  2025cites this paper
• Examining Sex Representation Shifts in Orthodontic Residency Programs: A Study of Trends across U.S. Dental Specialties.

  2025cites this paper
• Association Between Specialty-Specific Physician Salaries and Percentage of Women in the Workforce

  2025influential citation
• Internal and external influences on role stereotype adherence and gender dynamics on engineering design teams

  2025influential citation
• How gender shapes practice choices among family medicine residents and early career family physicians: a Canadian qualitative study

  2025cites this paper
• Plugging the leaky pipeline: Engaging female medical students in radiology education.

  2025cites this paper
• Exploring leadership skills development in nursing: a qualitative investigation into the excellence in care program in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

  2025cites this paper
• Association Between Average Annual US Medical Specialty Compensation and Percentage of Trainees in the Specialty Who Are Female.

  2025cites this paper
• Proportion of Female Physicians in a Specialty and Median Annual Payments in Ontario, Canada

  2025cites this paper
• Seeing Is Believing? Exploring Gender Bias in Artificial Intelligence Imagery of Specialty Doctors

  2025cites this paper
• Family physician pay inequality: a qualitative study exploring how physician responses to perceived patient expectations may explain gender, race, and immigration status pay differences

  2025cites this paper
• Integrating Inequality Regimes and Social Cognitive Career Theory: Female Physicians' Resilience in India

  2025cites this paper
• Redrawing the surgical line: The role of female surgeon mentorship in shaping female medical students' perceptions of surgery.

  2025cites this paper
• To Improve Health in the United States, Focus on Women.

  2025cites this paper
• Gender composition in the work environment and physicians’ income from Medicare Part B fee-for-service payments: evidence from longitudinal data

  2024cites this paper
• Together but separate: a longitudinal study of how spatial context shapes the formation of social ties of women medical students

  2024cites this paper
• Geschlechterbalance in Orthopädie und Unfallchirurgie – Status quo

  2024cites this paper
• Designing Robot Identity: The Role of Voice, Clothing, and Task on Robot Gender Perception

  2024cites this paper
• Addressing the root causes of the sex-based pay gap in medicine in Canada

  2024cites this paper
• Matching Against Men: 5 Years of Residency Match Data Show Disparities Still Exist

  2024cites this paper
• Women Surgeons: Barriers and Solutions.

  2024cites this paper
• Still a ‘boys’ club': a qualitative analysis of how gender affects a career in anaesthesia in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand

  2024cites this paper
• Éliminer les causes profondes de l’écart salarial entre les sexes en médecine au Canada

  2024cites this paper
• "Women's work": Gender and the physician workforce.

  2024cites this paper
• It's Time to Break the Cycle: Gender Inequity in Pediatric Hospital Medicine.

  2024cites this paper
• Exploring Factors Influencing Medical Trainees’ Specialty Choice: Insights from a Nationwide Cross-Sectional Survey in Jordan

  2024cites this paper
• Exploring gender disparity in medicine: perceptions of female physicians in Lebanon

  2024influential citation
• Navigating the changing landscape of transplant research: Trends, topics, and gender disparities.

  2024cites this paper
• Incorporating sex and gender considerations in research on psychosocial work exposures and cardiovascular diseases: A systematic review of 55 prospective studies.

  2024cites this paper
• The Gender-Equality Paradox in Intraindividual Academic Strengths: A Cross-Temporal Analysis

  2024cites this paper
• Gender Disparities in Surgical Subspecialties: A CMS Data Analysis.

  2024cites this paper
• Factors affecting physicians’ specialty selection: A demographic and socioeconomic perspective

  2024cites this paper
• The learning experiences of senior residents in laparoscopic gynecological surgeries: A quality study

  2024cites this paper
• Subspecialty Choices Among Medicine-Pediatrics Graduates: Results From a Four-Year National Program Director Survey

  2024cites this paper
• Disease site specialization in the academic radiation oncology workforce: Evidence of gender differences.

  2024cites this paper
• Surgical Sexism—a New Word in the Surgical Arena

  2023cites this paper
• Trends in patient attachment to an aging primary care workforce: a population-based serial cross-sectional study in Ontario, Canada

  2023cites this paper
• Gender discrimination among women healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: Findings from a mixed methods study

  2023cites this paper
• Gender equity in anesthesia: is it time to rock the boat?

  2023cites this paper
• Gender as a social and structural variable: research perspectives from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

  2023cites this paper
• Structural Sexism and Cancer Care: The Effects on the Patient and Oncologist.

  2023cites this paper
• Female Excellence and Leadership in Pediatrics Subspecialties (FLEXPeds): Creating a Network for Women across Academic Pediatrics.

  2023cites this paper
• From Exclusion to Glass Ceiling: A History of Women in Neonatal Medicine

  2023cites this paper
• Perceptions of Gender Stereotypes among Women Residents in Surgical and Nonsurgical Specialties

  2023cites this paper
• Surgical sexism in Canada: structural bias in reimbursement of surgical care for women

  2023cites this paper
• A gender biased hidden curriculum of clinical vignettes in undergraduate medical training.

  2023cites this paper
• The place of women in gastrointestinal medicine and surgery: the need for progress.

  2023cites this paper
• The Impact of UK Medical Students’ Demographics and Socioeconomic Factors on Their Self-Reported Familiarity With the Postgraduate Training Pathways and Application Process: Cross-Sectional Study

  2023cites this paper
• Deconstructing the masculinized assumption of the medical profession: narratives of Japanese physician fathers

  2023cites this paper
• Medical students experience mistreatment, with a focus on gender discrimination. Cross-sectional study at one Swedish medical school

  2023cites this paper
• Characteristics of patients attached to near-retirement family physicians: a population-based serial cross-sectional study in Ontario, Canada

  2023cites this paper
• How attending and resident reactions influence medical student specialty selection

  2023cites this paper
• The impact of gendered experiences on female medical students' specialty choice: A systematic review.

  2022cites this paper
• Redressing injustices: how women students enact agency in undergraduate medical education

  2022cites this paper
• Lifetime Earning Potential and Workforce Distribution in Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.

  2022cites this paper
• Developing Priorities to Alleviate the Long-Term Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women Engaged in Diabetes Research, Education, and Care: A Concept Mapping Study

  2022cites this paper
• Core Entrustable Professional Activities for Entering Residency: A National Survey of Graduating Medical Students’ Self-Assessed Skills by Specialty

  2022cites this paper
• Creating work environments where people of all genders in gynecologic oncology can thrive: An SGO evidence-based review.

  2022influential citation
• Gender bias in the evaluation of interns in different medical specialties: An archival study

  2022cites this paper
• Stress-testing the resilience of the Austrian healthcare system using agent-based simulation

  2022cites this paper
• Association Between Gender Distribution and Lifetime Earning Potential in the Pediatric Subspecialties.

  2022cites this paper
• Addressing Gender-Based Disparities in Earning Potential in Academic Medicine

  2022cites this paper
• Words Matter: Examining Gender Differences in the Language Used to Evaluate Pediatrics Residents.

  2022cites this paper
• Analysis of Physician Compensation Studies by Gender, Race, and Ethnicity

  2022cites this paper
• Gender and Racial Trends among Geriatric Psychiatry Fellows in the USA: A Call to Action

  2022cites this paper
• Gender Equity in Gynecologic Surgery: Lessons from History, Strengthening the Future

  2022cites this paper
• Specialty Gender Composition and Prevalence of Physician Harassment

  2022cites this paper
• Equal Pay for Equal Work in the Dean Suite: Addressing Occupational Gender Segregation and Compensation Inequities Among Medical School Leadership.

  2022cites this paper
• Implicit gender-career bias in postgraduate medical training still exists, mainly in residents and in females

  2021cites this paper
• Research Conducted in Women Was Deemed More Impactful but Less Publishable than the Same Research Conducted in Men

  2021cites this paper
• Gender Distribution in Pediatric Hospital Medicine Leadership.

  2021cites this paper
• Women in Academic Family Medicine.

  2021cites this paper
• The Glaring Gender Bias in the Operating Room: A Qualitative Study of Factors Influencing Career Selection for First-Year Medical Students.

  2021cites this paper
• THE 2021 SCIENTIFIC MEETING OF THE SOCIETY OF GYNECOLOGIC SURGEONS HIGHLIGHTS ISSUE, PART 2

  2021cites this paper
• Retrospective study of the differences in patient characteristics and revenue between male and female surgeons in Taiwan

  2021cites this paper
• The Effect of COVID-19 on the Medical School Experience, Specialty Selection, and Career Choice: A Qualitative Study

  2021cites this paper
• Gender Equity in Pediatric Hospital Medicine: What History Tells Us.

  2021cites this paper
• Reimbursement for Female-Specific Compared With Male-Specific Procedures Over Time

  2021cites this paper
• When Physicians Marry Physicians: Gender Inequities in Work Hours and Income

  2021cites this paper
• Limitations or Advantages? Gender Differences in Urologists, General Surgeons, and Gynecologists in Taiwan – A Nationwide, Population-based Study

  2021cites this paper
• Gender Differences in Compensation in Anesthesiology in the United States: Results of a National Survey of Anesthesiologists

  2021cites this paper
• Differences in Lifetime Earning Potential Between Pediatric and Adult Physicians

  2021cites this paper
• Towards equitable learning environments for medical education: Bias and the intersection of social identities

  2021cites this paper
• Occupational segregation by gender in veterinary specialties: Who we are choosing, or who is choosing us.

  2021cites this paper
• Female Participation in Academic European Neurosurgery—A Cross-Sectional Analysis

  2021cites this paper
• Changes in dermatology practice characteristics in the United States from 2012 to 2017

  2021cites this paper
• The Influence of Messaging on Perceptions of Careers in Veterinary Medicine: Do Gender Stereotypes Matter?

  2021cites this paper
• The Role of Gender in Careers in Medicine: a Systematic Review and Thematic Synthesis of Qualitative Literature

  2021cites this paper