Women’s Representation Among Ophthalmology Faculty Has Slowly Progressed Over the Past Fifty Years

A new study published in JAMA Ophthalmology has examined the change in demographics among United States academic ophthalmology faculty since the 1960s and found women still remain underrepresented with little progress made over the past 50 years.

The authors examined the demographic data from 221 academic ophthalmologists in 1966 and 3,158 academic ophthalmologists in 2021. The results revealed that although women’s representation did increase over this time period from 12.2 percent to 41.8 percent, progress was slow at a change of just 0.63 percent per year.

Furthermore, the study revealed that women were increasing underrepresented at higher professorial ranks. Women academic ophthalmologists are more likely to be instructors or assistant professors without tenure rather than tenured associate professors or full professors. Slow progress was also found among department chairs, where women’s representation increased at a rate of 0.32 percent per year.

The authors findings confirm the prevalence of women’s broader underrepresentation in medicine and other STEM fields exists among academic ophthalmologists as well. They believe further advocacy and intervention is needed to increase diversity in the field.