Role Models, Allies, and Diversity—Global Issues for Female Cardiology Trainees

To the Editor We thank and congratulate JAMA Cardiology for its recent focus on female underrepresentation in cardiology. The most powerful statistic, from Douglas et al¹ published in JAMA Cardiology, is that after the subject matter itself, the 2 most commonly identified factors guiding our trainees’ specialty selection are a supportive role model and positive encouragement. These are 2 fundamentally basic factors that should be accessible to every trainee. Our female cardiology trainees have very few people to ask how to negotiate the hurdles of training they experience as women. The isolation of training in such a male-dominated specialty is significant, and the potential for unconscious bias should not be underestimated.² For so long, this issue has remained undiscussed; for many, as evidenced by the echoing silence described by Mehran,³ it appears to remain unimportant.