Gender and Racial Diversity Among the Head Medical and Athletic Training Staff of Women’s Professional Sports Leagues

BACKGROUND: Despite increased awareness for promoting diversity, orthopaedics remains one of the least diverse specialties. Studying health care providers in women’s professional sports provides a unique opportunity to analyze gender and racial diversity. HYPOTHESES: There would be low female and minority representation across the various women’s professional sports leagues. There would be an increased number of female head certified athletic trainers (ATCs) when compared with head team physicians (HTPs). STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: We evaluated the perceived race and sex of designated HTPs and ATCs in the Women’s National Basketball Association, National Women’s Soccer League, and National Women’s Hockey League. Type of doctorate degree, specialty, and years in practice were also collected. Kappa (κ) coefficient measurements were used to determine interobserver agreement on race. Categorical and continuous variables were analyzed using chi-square and t tests, respectively. RESULTS: There were significantly more female ATCs than female HTPs (74.1% vs 37.5%; P = .01). Minority representation between HTPs and ATCs was not significantly different (20.8% vs 40.7%; P = .13). Black HTPs (12.5%) and Black ATCs (22.2%) composed the largest proportion among the minority groups. There was high interobserver agreement of perceived race across HTPs (κ = 1.0) and ATCs (κ = 0.95). CONCLUSION: Although there were more female ATCs than HTPs in women’s professional sports leagues, both cohorts lack perceived racial diversity. These data suggest an opportunity for diversification in medical and training staff of women’s professional sports.