The Future is Female: The Influence of Female Faculty and Resident Representation on Female Applicant Match Rate Amongst Urology Residency Programs Over 3 Years

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether there is a correlation between the proportion of female faculty and resi-dents at urology residency programs and the proportion of females matched to those programs. MATERIALS AND METHODS We utilized official results from 3 consecutive AUA match cycles from 2018 - 2020 to obtain the number of females matched to each program. The number of female residents and faculty members in each program was acquired through querying program websites and contact with residency pro -gram coordinators. The correlation between the proportion of females in the newly matched class of residents and the proportion of current female faculty members and residents in that program was calculated for each match cycle. RESULTS There was a positive correlation between the proportion of matched female applicants and the proportion of female residents in each program for the 2018, 2019, and 2020 match cycles (R = 0.23, P = .01; R = 0.21, P = .02, R = 0.11, p <.001, respectively). There was a positive corre-lation between the proportion of matched female applicants and the proportion of female faculty at their matched program in the 2018 and 2020 match cycles (R = 0.22, P = .02; R = 0.06, P < .01, respectively). There was no significant predilection of females matching to programs with a female program director or chairperson, and geographic location of program (based on AUA sec-tion) did not appear to influence female applicant match rates. CONCLUSION There has been a consistent trend in the proportion of matched female applicants to urology pro-grams correlating positively with the proportion of female residents at those programs over the past three years. This is indicative of the increased potential for female mentorship and leadership opportunities. Further research is needed to investigate the factors that draw female applicants to urology programs with increased female representation. UROLOGY 160: 46-50, 2022. (c) 2021 Elsevier Inc.