A new study has revealed that men who don mustaches hold higher positions than women in the field of academic medical institutions.
Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania analyzed 1,018 leaders of medical departments all over the U.S. and recorded their specialties, institutions, gender and the presence of facial hair. People included are chairs, heads, department heads, and others.
Their study revealed that out of the 20 specialties that were observed, only five of those - obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, dermatology, family medicine and emergency medicine - had over 20 percent of department heads that are female. However, it also shows that 10 of these specialties have over 20 percent male leaders with mustaches.
Moustachioed individuals significantly outnumber women as leaders of medical departments in the US #XmasBMJ https://t.co/vMb5VjxQmg
— The BMJ (@bmj_latest) December 17, 2015
"The lack of women in leadership roles in medicine is well-documented, but despite the eccentricities of the study, our results show that even when you focus solely on men with mustaches - which are rare - women are still outnumbered across various specialties," said lead author Mackenzie Wehner, MD, MPhil, a Penn Medicine dermatology resident physician, according to the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
Researchers also found that those who head psychiatry and pathology departments were more hairy.
"Department leaders with facial hairstyles that did not include hair on the upper lip (for example, Mutton Chops, Chin Curtain) were considered not to have a mustache," the study says, according to NBC News.
"We defined a mustache as the visible presence of hair on the upper cutaneous lip and included both stand alone mustaches (for example, Copstash Standard, Pencil, Handlebar, Dali, Supermario) as well as mustaches in combination with other facial hair (for example, Van Dyke, Balbo, The Zappa)," the researchers added.
The researchers campaigned that the "mustache index" should be raised.
"There are two ways to achieve this goal: by increasing the number of women or by asking leaders to shave their moustaches. In addition to being discriminatory, the latter choice could have detrimental effects on workplace satisfaction and emotional wellbeing of moustachioed individuals. Deans are left with one option: to hire, retain, and promote more women," the team wrote, according to Feministing.
The study was published in the Dec. 16 issue of The British Medical Journal.
