We already know how disparaging the gender divide is amongst executive leadership positions, but a new study finds a strange conclusion that might seem funny, but is no laughing matter.Women are outnumbered in medical leadership positions by the number of men with mustaches — yes, just men with mustaches. This finding was uncovered by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, UC Berkley, and UC San Fransisco, who conducted this study to "draw attention to sex disparities" in medical leadership. They chose to use mustaches as their variable because of their rarity; according to their research, only 15 percent of men in the United sport this facial hair style. But despite this rarity, it's still not as uncommon as women in medical leadership positions. Sigh.
The researchers used data available in the public domain to find the top 50 medical institutions that were funded the National Institute of Health; then they tracked these institutions through until they found specific leaders within the specified departments who had photos attached to their biographies. To determine if someone had a mustache, they used the following definition in their analysis: "The visible presence of hair on the upper cutaneous lip and included both stand alone mustaches, as well as mustaches in combination with other facial hair." They also didn't discriminate based on the gender of the person.
They found that men with mustaches significantly outnumbered the number of women in medical leadership positions: Mustachioed men held 19 percent of leadership roles, compared to 13 percent of women who held them. They also found that only seven of the top 50 institutions had women in more than 20 percent of leadership positions. To solve the problem, the researchers recommend having universities start instituting a "mustache index," which would keep track of the ratio of all women to men with mustaches.
This sounds so outrageous — and yet, it's horrifyingly true. And it's just one of many more studies that show the massive gender gaps in leadership rules. If you don't believe me, here are five other ridiculous-sounding stats about things you honestly wouldn't believe outnumber women in leadership positions.
1. Men With The Name John
This year's Our Glass Ceiling Index found that men with the name John outnumbered the total amount of women CEOs in 1500 S&P companies: 5.3 percent of CEOs are named John, while women constituted just 4.1 percent of these executive positions. The number of male CEOS named David also outnumbered the total number of women, showing how deep the gender gap in executive leadership still is.
2. Men Running Advertising Campaigns
Men constitute 97 percent of all creative directors in advertising, according to the Center for American Progress. Meanwhile, women control 80 percent of consumer spending in the United States, meaning there are more men controlling the advertising of products than who actually have the power to purchase them.
3. Men In Congress That Are Are Catholic
Looking across all religious affiliations and denominations of Christianity, of which eight were identified, there are more men in the 104th Congress who are Catholic (164) than there are women in total (104). It's no wonder that we're still fighting to get equal political representation almost 100 years after earning the right to vote.
4. U.S. Presidents
There have been more United States presidents, 44, than the total number of female presidents currently in power around the entire world, 22. That number could potentially be 23 in 2016 if Hillary Clinton is elected... just throwing that out there.
5. The Population of Antarctica
There are more people who have lived in Antarctica than there are female college and university presidents. Although the Antarctic population is technically zero, the summer research population is anywhere from 1,100 to 4,400, while women only constitute approximately 508. I crunched this myself by looking at the total number of four-year colleges in the United States (1,957) and finding the percentage of female university presidents in America (26 percent). So doing some simple division, I found that about 508 of these college presidents are women, which is a lot less than the total number of people coming in and out of Antartica.
Images: Giphy (5)
