# The Gender Gap in Medicine: Which Specialties Have the Most Women? *Women are 55% of med students but 8.5% of orthopedic surgeons. We analyzed 3.1 million practitioners to map the divide.* Source: https://ourhealthnetwork.com/insights/gender-gap-medicine-specialties Author: OurHealthNetwork Editorial Team Published: 2026-03-26 Last updated: 2026-03-26 Reading time: 9 minutes ## Summary Analysis of 3.1 million CMS Medicare-enrolled practitioners reveals stark gender divides across medical specialties, from OB/GYN (63.5% female) to orthopedic surgery (8.5% female, an 11-to-1 male ratio). ## Women Make Up 55% of Medical Students but Only 38.7% of Active Physicians. Here Is Where They Practice. More women enter medical school today than men. According to the [AAMC's physician workforce data](https://www.aamc.org/data-reports/workforce/data/active-physicians-sex-and-specialty-2021), women now represent 55.1% of medical students, a milestone reached for the first time in 2019. Yet among active physicians, women hold just 38.7% of positions. The pipeline is full; the profession is still catching up. We analyzed our database of 3.1 million Medicare-enrolled practitioners to measure the gender composition of every medical specialty. The results reveal a profession split into two distinct worlds: specialties where women have reached or surpassed parity, and specialties where they remain outnumbered 10 to 1. 62.6% Overall Female (NPs incl.) 63.5% Highest Physician Specialty 8.5% Lowest (Ortho Surgery) 55.1% Med Students Female ## The Specialties Where Women Lead Two physician specialties share the top position. [Obstetrics and gynecology](/obgyn) is 63.5% female, with 53,616 women among 84,405 total OB/GYNs. [Pediatrics](/pediatrician) matches that figure exactly at 63.5%, with 74,997 women out of 118,182 pediatricians. These are not recent developments. Both fields have had female majorities for over a decade, and the share continues to climb as older male physicians retire. After OB/GYN and pediatrics, a cluster of specialties sits in the 50% to 57% range. [Geriatric medicine](/geriatrician) is 56.5% female. [Endocrinology](/endocrinologist) follows at 55.8%. [Dermatology](/dermatologist) crossed the 50% threshold in recent years and now sits at 51.4%. And [rheumatology](/rheumatologist) has reached an almost perfect equilibrium. 27 doctors separate men from women in rheumatology. Out of 14,049 rheumatologists, 7,038 are women and 7,011 are men, making it the most gender-balanced physician specialty in the country at 50.1% female. These female-majority specialties share a few characteristics. They tend to involve longitudinal patient relationships, scheduled rather than emergency-driven work, and populations (children, elderly, patients with chronic conditions) where communication and care coordination are central to the role. That does not mean women choose these fields because they are "softer." Research suggests mentorship, visible role models, and residency culture all play larger roles in specialty selection than any inherent preference. Dermatology is a useful case study. It crossed the 50% female threshold only in recent years, driven by a combination of factors: controllable lifestyle, high compensation, and a growing cohort of female dermatology faculty who serve as mentors. The field's transformation shows that specialty gender composition is not fixed. When structural barriers come down and role models appear, women enter in large numbers. ## The Middle Ground: Large Specialties Near 40% to 45% Several of medicine's largest specialties sit in the 40% to 45% range, just below parity. [Family practice](/family-medicine-physician) is 45.0% female. [Psychiatry](/psychiatrist) stands at 44.3%. [Internal medicine](/internist), the single largest physician specialty with 259,431 practitioners, is 40.0% female. These numbers are significant because of scale. Internal medicine alone accounts for roughly one in twelve active practitioners. A shift of even a few percentage points in these large specialties moves the overall physician gender balance more than doubling the female share in a small surgical subspecialty ever could. Psychiatry's 44.3% figure is worth watching. Among psychiatry residents, women already make up more than half. Within five to ten years, psychiatry will likely join the female-majority group, a meaningful shift for a field that treats conditions affecting women at higher rates than men. Family practice tells a different story. At 45.0% female, it has been hovering just below parity for years, and the trend line has flattened. Family medicine residency positions are increasingly filled by international medical graduates, whose gender distribution differs from U.S. medical school graduates. Whether family practice crosses the 50% line will depend on workforce dynamics beyond any single pipeline. ## The Specialties Where Women Are Scarce Below the 35% line, the gender gap widens fast. [Emergency medicine](/emergency-medicine-physician) is 31.5% female. [Anesthesiology](/anesthesiologist) is 28.2%. [General surgery](/general-surgeon) is 27.3%. Then come the surgical subspecialties, where the numbers become stark. [Cardiology](/cardiologist) is 18.1% female. [Urology](/urologist) is 13.4%. Neurosurgery is 10.4%. Cardiac surgery is 8.5%. And at the bottom: [orthopedic surgery](/orthopedic-surgeon) at 8.5% and interventional cardiology at 7.2%. Female Physicians by Specialty (% of Total) 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% OB/GYN 63.5% Pediatrics 63.5% Geriatric Med 56.5% Endocrinology 55.8% Dermatology 51.4% Rheumatology 50.1% Family Practice 45.0% Psychiatry 44.3% Internal Med 40.0% Emergency Med 31.5% Cardiology 18.1% Ortho Surgery 8.5% Source: OurHealthNetwork analysis of 3.1M CMS Medicare-enrolled practitioners, March 2026 ## Cardiology: A Case Study in Disproportion Cardiology illustrates the gap in raw numbers. Of 72,792 cardiologists in the CMS data, 13,184 are women and 59,608 are men. That is a 4.5-to-1 male-to-female ratio. 59,608 Male 4.5 : 1 male-to-female ratio 13,184 Female Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States. Yet fewer than one in five cardiologists are women. Research has shown that female patients treated by female cardiologists have better outcomes, including lower mortality rates after heart attacks. The supply of female cardiologists does not match the demand. Interventional cardiology, the subspecialty that performs catheterizations and stent placements, is even more skewed at just 7.2% female. Cardiac surgery sits at 8.5%. These procedure-heavy fields have among the longest training pipelines in medicine, often requiring seven or more years of post-medical-school training, a factor that disproportionately affects women during peak childbearing years. The outcomes data makes the disparity more than academic. A 2018 study published in PNAS found that female patients experiencing heart attacks were more likely to survive when treated by female physicians. The effect was large enough that the authors estimated closing the gender gap in cardiology could save measurable numbers of lives each year. With only 13,184 female cardiologists serving a nation of 330 million people, access to gender-concordant cardiac care remains limited for most women. ## Orthopedic Surgery: The 11-to-1 Ratio 11 : 1 male-to-female ratio in orthopedic surgery. Of 64,224 orthopedic surgeons, just 5,428 are women (8.5%). It is the most male-dominated physician specialty in the United States. Orthopedic surgery has been the most male-dominated medical specialty for decades, and progress has been slow. The field's culture has been widely documented as a barrier: long hours, a physically demanding OR environment, and a historically "boys' club" reputation that discourages female applicants. In recent residency match cycles, women have made up roughly 18% of orthopedic surgery residents, so the 8.5% figure among practicing surgeons will climb. But at this pace, reaching even 25% will take another 15 to 20 years. ## Beyond Physicians: Where Women Dominate The gender picture shifts dramatically when looking at non-physician practitioners. Nurse practitioners are 88.5% female, with 602,874 women out of 681,218 total NPs. Speech-language pathologists are 95.9% female. Occupational therapists are 90.8% female. And certified nurse midwives are 99.3% female. These professions grew out of historically female-dominated fields (nursing, therapy) and have maintained those proportions even as they gained independent practice authority and expanded scope. The contrast is striking: the healthcare roles with the most autonomy and highest compensation (surgery, procedural cardiology) remain overwhelmingly male, while the roles that evolved from nursing and allied health remain overwhelmingly female. The NP numbers deserve special attention because of scale. With 681,218 total nurse practitioners in the CMS data, NPs now outnumber several physician specialties combined. As states continue expanding NP scope of practice and as primary care physician shortages grow, NPs are becoming the default frontline providers for millions of Americans. The gender composition of that workforce shapes the patient experience in ways that pure physician statistics miss. ## Geography Matters: The States With the Most Female Practitioners The gender balance in medicine also varies by geography. Massachusetts leads the nation with 69.5% of healthcare practitioners being female, followed by Washington, D.C. at 67.2%, Rhode Island at 67.1%, Colorado at 66.5%, and Vermont at 66.1%. These top states share common traits: strong academic medical centers, high concentrations of NP and PA programs, and state-level scope-of-practice laws that grant more independence to nurse practitioners. In states where NPs can practice independently, more women enter and remain in the healthcare workforce, which pushes overall female representation higher. The state-level variation also reflects regional differences in specialty mix. States with large academic medical centers tend to have more physicians in research-heavy subspecialties, which skew male. States with more community-based care and NP-driven primary care models tilt female. The geography of gender in medicine tracks closely with the geography of how healthcare is delivered. "Women are 55% of medical students but 8.5% of orthopedic surgeons and 7.2% of interventional cardiologists. The pipeline is not the problem. The specialties are." ## The Pay Gap Compounds the Representation Gap Gender disparity in specialty choice is not just a representation issue. It is a financial one. According to the [Doximity 2024 Physician Compensation Report](https://www.doximity.com/physician-compensation-report), female physicians earn an average of $91,000 less per year than their male counterparts, a 26% pay gap. Part of this gap reflects specialty distribution: women are concentrated in lower-paying specialties (pediatrics, family medicine) while men dominate the highest-paying ones (orthopedic surgery, cardiology, interventional procedures). But the pay gap persists even within the same specialty. After controlling for hours worked, years of experience, and practice setting, female physicians earn 10% to 15% less than male peers in the same field. The specialty distribution gap and the within-specialty pay gap compound each other, creating a cumulative financial disadvantage over a career. Over a 30-year career, a female physician earning $91,000 less per year forfeits $2.7 million in gross income relative to her male peers. Even after adjusting for specialty differences, the within-specialty gap alone costs a female physician roughly $300,000 to $500,000 over a career. These are physicians who completed the same training, passed the same boards, and treat the same conditions. The financial cost of the gender gap falls disproportionately on the women who chose to practice medicine despite the barriers. ## What These Numbers Mean for Patients The gender composition of medicine affects patient care in measurable ways. Studies have linked physician-patient gender concordance to better communication, higher patient satisfaction, and in some specialties, better clinical outcomes. When women cannot find female surgeons, cardiologists, or urologists, it limits patient choice in specialties where the research suggests that choice may matter most. The data also has implications for access. As NPs take on larger roles in primary care, especially in rural and underserved areas, the healthcare workforce patients encounter will be overwhelmingly female. In specialty and surgical care, it will remain overwhelmingly male. This creates a bifurcated system where the gender of your provider depends less on your preference and more on what type of care you need. ## Looking Forward The trajectory is clear, if slow. Women's share of every surgical specialty has increased over the past decade. Residency classes in general surgery are now above 40% female. Even orthopedic surgery residency programs have moved from 14% to 18% female in just five years. But medicine's training pipeline is long. A medical student entering today will not be a practicing surgeon for another seven to ten years. The specialty-level gender gaps visible in today's data reflect decisions made a decade or more ago. The progress is real; the pace means that full parity in the surgical specialties, if it arrives at all, is still a generation away. The data paints a profession in transition. Women have already reshaped pediatrics, OB/GYN, and endocrinology. They are on the verge of transforming psychiatry and family medicine. The surgical specialties remain resistant, but the residency numbers suggest that even orthopedic surgery and cardiology will look different in 2040 than they do today. The question is not whether medicine will reach gender parity; it is which specialties will get there first, and which will take a generation longer. **Methodology:** Data is drawn from CMS Medicare enrollment files covering 3.1 million active practitioners, analyzed by OurHealthNetwork in March 2026. Gender is determined by the provider's CMS enrollment record. Percentages reflect currently enrolled practitioners, not residency applicants or medical students. External data from AAMC and Doximity is cited where noted. All practitioner counts are rounded to the nearest whole number. ## Tags gender gap, women in medicine, medical specialties, physician workforce, healthcare data ## Related articles on OurHealthNetwork - https://ourhealthnetwork.com/insights/medical-school-rankings-active-practitioners - https://ourhealthnetwork.com/insights/insurance-network-comparison-by-state ## About this article This article is part of OurHealthNetwork's insights collection. We are an independent healthcare data platform aggregating federal datasets (CMS, FDA, CDC) to inform patients and caregivers. See https://ourhealthnetwork.com/methodology for our editorial approach and https://ourhealthnetwork.com/data-sources for source datasets.