Women’s History Month: Steady Progress and Historic Gains in Representation Across GME
Over the last two decades, the graduate medical education (GME) physician workforce in the US has undergone a profound demographic shift. For the first time in history, women make up a slight majority of residents and fellows from US medical schools and will likely account for more than 50 percent of all residents and fellows when the ACGME data are published for Academic Year 2025-2026.
The growth in representation begins well before residency. Among US medical school graduates, women have constituted the majority of matriculants for several years, beginning in 2019-2020, and that momentum has carried into GME. Indicators show that the medical education pathway is now reliably producing a physician workforce that looks more gender-balanced and, increasingly, female.
Where the Growth Is Happening
While aggregate numbers tell one story, the ACGME Data Resource Book reveals where the most dramatic specialty-specific gains have occurred.
Between 2008 and 2025, several historically male-dominated specialties saw double-digit jumps in female representation. Although specialty-level figures vary from year to year, the trend lines across ACGME data sets show significant increases in many fields, especially surgical fields, including:
- Thoracic Surgery (23% increase)
- General Surgery (22.9%)
- Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (18.3%)
- Neurological Surgery (16.3%)
- Urology (16.1%)
Readers interested in exploring these trends in detail, including year-over-year increases and breakdowns by education pathway, can find complete tables in the ACGME Data Resource Book and accompanying public data dashboards on ACGME Cloud.
Mentorship: A Proven Driver of Women’s Success in Medicine
The increasing presence of women in GME is not only a quantitative story; it is also supported by qualitative research showing what helps women thrive in medicine. A major systematic review published in Academic Medicine found that women in medicine place especially high value on mentorship, but also experience greater difficulty finding mentors, which negatively affects career advancement, research productivity, and promotion.
Another qualitative analysis in the Journal of General Internal Medicine similarly highlighted that mentorship, especially a long-term, values-aligned relationship, is a critical component of professional growth for women in medicine.
Together, these findings indicate that mentorship is a key structural support that helps explain not only why more women are entering medicine, but also how they persist and succeed in the field.
Looking Ahead
The fact that women now constitute half of all GME learners is exciting and worth recognizing. Growth is occurring across specialties, including those long dominated by men. Mentorship is becoming recognized as a critical element for advancement. Structural changes, like the transition to a single accreditation system, are reshaping the pipeline in ways that amplify women’s representation.
As we honor and celebrate Women’s History Month, the data show meaningful progress toward a physician workforce that better reflects the communities it serves.