Women in Cardiac Surgery: A Global Workforce Analysis

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).