• Rui Feng, Samantha E Hoffman, Katherine Wagner, Jamie S Ullman, Martina Stippler, and Isabelle M Germano.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA.
• World Neurosurg. 2021 Mar 1; 147: 80-88.

ObjectiveTo provide the status of women neurosurgeons (WNS) in academic faculty and/or leadership positions in neurosurgery in the United States.MethodsNeurosurgery academic programs were defined as having an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) neurosurgery residency program (NSRP). Using a Google search, gender, academic rank, postgraduate degrees, academic and clinical titles, and subspecialty were recorded for each neurosurgery faculty. Officer gender was recorded for the top 7 neurosurgery U.S. organizations, 7 subspecialty sections, and 50 state neurosurgical societies.ResultsWNS were faculty at 77% (89/115) of ACGME NSRPs and constituted 10% of the workforce (186/1773). WNS residents were in 92% of ACGME NSRPs and constituted 19% of the workforce (293/1515). Two NSRPs (8%) had neither WNS faculty nor WNS residents. Of NSRPs without WNS faculty, 52% (13/25) had a faculty size >10. WNS accounted for 3% of NSRP chair positions. Academic rank of WNS faculty was lower than academic rank of men neurosurgeons faculty (P < 0.05). WNS faculty had a higher number of postgraduate degrees (P < 0.05). Pediatrics was the most common subspecialty (30%) among WNS. Over time, WNS held 1% of the leadership positions within the top 7 U.S. neurosurgery organizations and 7% within the 7 subspecialty sections. Over the past 20 years, 28% (14/50) of U.S. state neurosurgical societies had WNS serve as president.ConclusionsIn 2020, the gender gap for U.S. WNS faculty and residents still exists. By providing informed benchmarks, our study might help neurosurgery organizations, medical school leadership, hiring committees, editors, and conference speakers to plan their next steps.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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