Women in Cardiac Surgery: A Global Workforce Analysis [1]
In this article, the authors provide the first global quantification of women cardiac surgeons (WCS) and examine factors related to workforce diversity. The authors report that women constitute 8.0 percent (1,178/14,651) of the international cardiac surgical workforce, with a median of 0.00 WCS per million women (IQR: 0.00–0.09). North America (11.4 percent) and Europe (10.3 percent) have the highest regional representation, while East Asia (2.9 percent) and the Middle East (1.7 percent) have the lowest. High-income countries (9.9 percent) have double the proportion of WCS compared to low- and middle-income countries (4.8 percent), with a notable absence in low-income countries. Female representation correlates with Gross National Income (GNI) per capita (τ = 0.39), the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI) (τ = 0.26), and health expenditure (τ = 0.26).