*Purpose: To assess the unique experiences of women surgical trainees to better understand the recruitment and training strategies needed to ensure meaningful progress toward gender parity in the field of transplantation.

*Methods: A 38-question survey was distributed to trainee members of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) to assess medical school and residency training experiences and exposure to transplant surgery, as well as career and academic mentorship received as trainees. Descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney U tests were performed to determine statistical significance.

*Results: Of the 324 ASTS trainee members contacted, 94 (29% response rate) completed the survey and 37% of participants identified as women. At the start of residency training, men rated their interest in transplant surgery significantly higher with a median score of 6.5 (6) compared to women (4.0 [6]) (p<0.05) on a rating scale of 1 = not interested, to 10 = very interested. At the start of their senior/chief years of training, both men and women rated their interest in transplant surgery equally (10 [1] and 10 [2] respectively). Most women (53%) and men (57%) senior residents had greater than one month of clinical exposure to transplant surgery at their home program and qualified their operative experience as excellent or good (94%; 76%). Most women and men trainees also felt supported by the transplant faculty at their institutions, both in their dedicated research time (68%; 63%) and during their fellowship application cycle (74%; 78%).

*Conclusions: To date, a gender gap persists in transplant surgery. Women trainees report less interest in transplant surgery in their junior years and the survivorship bias from the cross-sectional study design may underestimate the magnitude of this finding. Although this difference is not reported in their senior years compared to their male counterparts, early career engagement of women trainees may provide an avenue to reduce the current gender gap. More organized and targeted mentorship, including supportive relationships with transplant surgeons early in trainees’ careers and positive junior transplant surgery experiences, are needed to promote engagement in transplant surgery among women trainees.

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