Representation of Gender Diversity in Ophthalmology Residency Program Social Media Accounts

Abstract

Purpose : The “leaky pipeline” theory describes the decline in female representation in higher levels of career progression. Over half of medical students are female, yet women remain underrepresented in ophthalmology. We performed a retrospective cross-sectional study to evaluate representation of gender diversity in U.S. ophthalmology residency program social media posts.

Methods : Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts of ophthalmology residency programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education were identified. Social media posts from 2019-2021 were manually analyzed to determine if the picture or caption included a female ophthalmologist or explicitly addressed gender diversity. Posts demonstrating gender diversity were classified by content: education, extracurricular, social, spotlight, or diversity. Program metrics, e.g., geographic region and gender of the program director, were noted. Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, Chi-square, and descriptive statistics were performed with significance at a=0.05.

Results : In 2019-2021, 30% of 20,580 total posts from Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter showed gender diversity, with 2% explicitly promoting gender diversity. Figure 1 shows types of content represented in these posts. The proportion of posts showing gender diversity increased from 2019-2021 (p=0.04). Proportion of posts showing gender diversity differed by gender of program director (p=0.01) but not by geographic region. Instagram accounts had a significantly higher proportion of posts showing gender diversity (60%) than Facebook (24%) and Twitter (39%) (p<0.001). Instagram accounts also had a higher proportion of posts spotlighting female ophthalmologists than Facebook and Twitter (p<0.001, Table 1). The most popular gender-related hashtag used across all platforms was #ilooklikeasurgeon.

Conclusions : Although increasing over time, the proportion of ophthalmology residency program social media posts demonstrating gender diversity is low. Residency programs can use social media as an avenue to promote women in ophthalmology, especially given that with the virtual interview format, prospective applicants are increasingly turning to social media platforms for more insight about programs.

This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.

 

Figure 1. Proportion of posts showing gender diversity, categorized by content.

 

Table 1. Proportion of posts showing gender diversity, stratified by platform.