More moustaches than women in medical leadership

“We chose to study moustaches… because they are rare, and we wanted to learn if women were even rarer”, they said.

Women, they found, account for 13 percent of department leaders, while men with moustaches accounted for 19 percent of department leaders.

Men with moustaches significantly outnumber women in leadership roles at medical schools, according to a quirky but revealing study.

However, those with mutton chops or other facial hair that did not cover the upper lip were not counted- and yes-for the sake of equality, they also evaluated the presence of facial hair amongst women. Nearly 50 percent of the USA medical students are women, but the proportion of women in academic medicine is still low with only 21 percent full professors being women.

The number of women in medicine has risen significantly in recent times.

‘There are two ways to achieve this goal: by increasing the number number of women or by asking leaders to shave their moustaches.

Ten specialties had more than 20% moustachioed department leaders, with the thickest moustache density found in psychiatry (31%), pathology (30%), and anesthesiology (26%).

Of 20 identified specialties only five had 20 percent female leadership compared to 10 areas of specialty that had 20 percent males with mustache leadership. Therefore, mustaches are more popular than women when it comes to medical leadership. It’s clearly a gag, and as my roommate wisely said this morning, “I’m sure if someone made a chart, we’d see that mustaches are going down and women are on the up”.

Now, a study shows they should also consider growing facial hair. “Misclassification of moustaches is another potential limitation, and our data are only as accurate as the institutional websites: photos might be out of date, especially for senior staff who might strive to look younger”. “Sex discrepancies in leadership are distressingly common across specialties”, the researchers write.

Dr. Mackenzie Wehner, a dermatology resident at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, and her colleagues analyzed the headshots of more than 1,000 department heads at the top ranked National Institutes of Health-funded academic medical institutions, and noted their sex, medical specialty, institution, and whether or not they sported a ‘stache. Strong policies against sexual harassment, better family leave, and strong mentoring programs could all help level the playing field while keeping a fair amount of facial hair in the mix.