Gender and academic promotion of Canadian general surgeons: a cross-sectional study

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Figure 1:
Scatterplot of number of publications by male and female surgeons based on number of years in practice.

Table 1:

Characteristics of practising Canadian academic general surgeons by gender

Characteristic	No. (%) of surgeons^*		p value
Characteristic	Men n = 294	Women n = 111	p value
Year of FRCSC graduation			< 0.01
Before 1990	68 (23.1)	10 (9.0)
1990–1999	69 (23.5)	27 (24.3)
2000–2009	97 (33.0)	41 (36.9)
2010–2017	45 (15.3)	33 (29.7)
Missing	15 (5.1)	0 (0.0)
No. of years in practice (after FRCSC), mean ± SD	18.5 ± 18.0	13.5 ± 14.3	< 0.001
Graduate education			0.2
None	153 (52.0)	45 (40.5)
Master’s	93 (31.6)	48 (43.2)
PhD	28 (9.5)	14 (12.6)
Other	48 (16.3)	22 (19.8)
No. of fellowships			0.7
0	83 (28.2)	31 (27.9)
1	176 (59.9)	70 (63.1)
≥ 2	35 (11.9)	10 (9.0)
Professorship level			< 0.001
Assistant	120 (40.8)	68 (61.3)
Associate	99 (33.7)	34 (30.6)
Full	75 (25.5)	9 (8.1)

Note: FRCSC = Fellow of Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, SD = standard deviation.
↵* Except where noted otherwise.

Table 2:

Research productivity by gender and professorship status

Variable	Professorship status; median (IQR)
Variable	Assistant n = 188	Associate n = 133	Full n = 84
Publications before FRCSC
All surgeons
First author	0.0 (2.0)	0.0 (2.0)	0.0 (2.0)
Last author	0.0 (0.0)	0.0 (0.0)	0.0 (0.0)
Total	1.0 (4.0)	1.0 (3.0)	1.0 (4.3)
Men
First author	0.0 (1.3)	0.0 (1.5)	0.0 (2.0)
Last author	0.0 (0.0)	0.0 (0.0)	0.0 (0.0)
Total	0.5 (4.0)	1.0 (3.0)	1.0 (5.0)
Women
First author	0.0 (2.0)	0.5 (2.0)	1.0 (2.0)
Last author	0.0 (0.0)	0.0 (0.0)	0.0 (0.0)
Total	1.0 (4.0)	1.0 (3.0)	2.0 (3.0)
All publications
All surgeons
First author	2.0 (6.0)	5.0 (9.0)	17.0 (24.5)
Last author	0.0 (3.0)	5.0 (8.0)	22.5 (35.3)
Total	9.0 (17.3)	29.0 (33.0)	98.5 (125.3)
Men
First author	2.0 (6.0)	4.0 (9.0)	17.0 (25.0)
Last author	0.0 (3.0)	5.0 (8.0)	21.0 (35.5)
Total	8.5 (17.5)	28.0 (32.0)	102.0 (123.0)
Women
First author	3.0 (5.3)	6.0 (8.5)	16.0 (12.0)
Last author	0.5 (2.3)	5.0 (10.0)	24.0 (48.0)
Total	9.0 (14.8)	32.0 (34.0)	95.0 (128.0)
h-index
All surgeons	4.0 (6.3)	11.0 (9.0)	28.0 (23.5)
Men	4.0 (7.3)	11.0 (10.0)	28.0 (25.0)
Women	4.5 (6.3)	12.5 (8.8)	29.0 (18.0)

Note: FRCSC = Fellow of Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, IQR = interquartile range.

Table 3:

Multivariable analysis of variables associated with full professorship

Variable	OR (95% CI)
Degree
None	Reference
Master’s	0.87 (0.39 to 1.95)
PhD	0.70 (0.22 to 2.29)
Total publications
Per 10 publications	1.18 (1.00 to 1.39)
h-index	1.05 (0.97 to 1.13)
Fellowships
0	Reference
≥ 1	0.52 (0.24 to 1.13)
Practice years, per decade of practice	1.61 (1.13 to 2.30)
Gender
Female	Reference
Male	2.79 (1.13 to 6.92)

Table 4:

Multivariable analysis of variables associated with combined outcome of associate or full professorship

Variable	OR (95% CI)
Degree
None	Reference
Master’s	1.47 (0.79 to 2.76)
PhD	0.85 (0.32 to 2.21)
Total publications
Per 10 publications	1.15 (0.91 to 1.46)
h-index	1.09 (1.0 to 1.19)
Fellowships
0	Reference
≥ 1	1.00 (0.54 to 1.87)
Practice years, per decade of practice	2.35 (1.72 to 3.19)
Gender
Female	Reference
Male	1.93 (1.10 to 3.38)