Women in pediatric radiology

In 2003, the American College of Radiology performed a survey of diagnostic radiologists, with a special focus on pediatric radiologists. Retrospective evaluation of the data collected generated papers on “A Portrait of Pediatric Radiologists in the United States” (2006) and “Women Radiologists in the United States” (2007) [2‐4]. Information about women pediatric radiologists provided by these papers is summarized below.

Several parameters can be used to define who is a pediatric radiologist; if the criterion used is that of individuals that spend 70% or more of their clinical time in pediatric radiology, then approximately 3% of radiologists, some 800–900 physicians, are pediatric radiologists. In 2003, 24% of radiologists in training, including residents and fellows, and 18% of post-training, professionally active radiologists were women; of those, 6% were reported to be pediatric radiologists.

Within pediatric radiology, the proportion of women increased quite dramatically, as 30% or more of practicing physicians were women, versus 19% for other subspecialties and 15% for non-specialists [2].

Women also comprised a large number of those on a part-time position: more than 40% of pediatric radiologists that spend more than 30% of their time in the specialty were women, versus 20% or less in other specialties.

The authors of the 2003 report noted that the percentage of women in radiology was lower than the percentage of women in more traditional female specialties, such as internal medicine (30%), pediatrics (51%) and obstetrics-gynecology (39%). However, women’s subspecialty choices within diagnostic radiology approximately followed this profile, as the highest number of women was found within the field of breast imaging (27%), followed by body imaging (9%) and pediatric radiology (6%) [2]. It was speculated whether the concentration of women in pediatric radiology would reflect gender role patterns, noting that factors such as lifestyle (call hours) and lack of interest for “high-tech” subspecialties, like interventional radiology and neuroradiology, may also play a role in their choice of subspecialty.

Not all pediatric radiologists are members of the SPR; however, the organization congregates the majority of those working full time in pediatric radiology, mostly in academic centers, and many of those that work on a part-time basis and on community-based institutions, as reported on surveys done in 1998, 1999, 2002 and 2009.

Among information provided by Goske et al. [4] on the 1999 SPR member survey, was that the average age of its female members (45 years) was lower than that of the male members (49 years). In 2001, Forman et al. [5] reported that the younger half of the survey respondents were women, while the older half was constituted by males. Both authors found that the representation of women in the field was increasing rather than decreasing. SPR 2009 data shows an even higher proportion of women in pediatric radiology, up to 38%. Both Table 1 and Fig. 1 depict the representation of women within the SPR, from its foundation in 1958 to 2009.

There is a recognized national shortage of pediatric radiologists. In the 2007–2008 update on employment market, pediatric radiology was found to be the third most difficult subspecialty in which to fill vacancies in academic centers, behind breast imaging and interventional radiology [6]. Reasons suggested include a financial disadvantage related to the lower practice revenues generated by pediatric radiologists, the lack of flexibility in a predominantly academic practice and the use of older imaging modalities [2, 6]. A motive of concern is the fact that although there is an increasing number of women attending medical schools (50%), the percentage of those choosing radiology (25%) has not significantly changed over the past several years. Arnold et al. [6] attempted to address the issue of factors influencing subspecialty choice among radiology residents, with particular emphasis on pediatric radiology, in a 2008 questionnaire sent to radiology trainees in the US. Analysis of the responses showed the important criteria for trainees’ decisions: area of strong personal interest, type of imaging modalities used in practice, intellectual challenge, strong personal knowledge, enjoyable rotations, marketability and job security. Another study by Robidoux et al. [7], measuring female medical students’ level of interest in radiology, mentioned the importance of flexible hours, intellectual challenge, patient care and mentoring.