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Successful mentorship for women in urology — a new era

Nature Reviews Urology (2023)Cite this article

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The number of women entering the historically male-dominated field of urology is growing over time, but women in urology are disproportionately younger than the male counterpart and face unique challenges that require intentionally directed mentorship. In this Comment, some of these issues are discussed from the perspective of both the female mentee and mentor.

The urology workforce in the USA continues to be predominantly male; however, the number of female urologists in practice is rising. Data from the 2021 American Urological Association (AUA) census indicate that this number increased from 7.7% in 2014 to 10.9% in 2021. This increase in percentage seems modest but highlights a disproportionate increase in young female urologists in the early-career stage, as 23.2% of urologists <45 years of age and only 5.9% and 1.1% aged 55–64 years and ≥65 years, respectively, are women. However, unfortunately, the same census showed that women urologists also have higher rates of dissatisfaction with work–life balance (7.3% of women versus 2.8% of men) and higher rates of burnout (49.2% of women versus 35.3% of men) than the male counterparts1. These statistics highlight that a disproportionately low number of senior women are available to mentor the growing number of young women joining the urology workforce and that women specifically face additional challenges that might benefit from specialized mentorship. Thus, quality and intentional mentorship is crucial to usher in this new era of women joining the urology workforce, assuring the individual success, retention and job satisfaction of these women2.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Urology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Anne M. Suskind

  2. Department of Urology, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL, USA

    Stacy Tanaka

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  1. Anne M. Suskind
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  2. Stacy Tanaka
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Correspondence to Anne M. Suskind.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Suskind, A.M., Tanaka, S. Successful mentorship for women in urology — a new era. Nat Rev Urol (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41585-023-00745-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41585-023-00745-y

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