More moustaches than women in med study

Men with moustaches significantly outnumber women in leadership roles at medical schools, according to a quirky but revealing study.

The US researchers looked at moustaches because they're rare and wanted to see if women were even rarer in academic medical leadership positions.

Published in the Christmas issue of The BMJ, the study analysed 1018 medical department leaders in the US's top 50 medical schools.

While 190 were moustachioed men, only 130 were women.

That's 19 per cent compared with 13 per cent.

"We want to increase the representation of women in academic medical leadership by drawing attention to sex disparities," the researchers wrote.

"This is a problem not only because of the strong ethical argument for equality but also for practical reasons: in business, having more woman leaders has been linked with better performance."

Deputy Dean of Sydney Medical School, Professor Tania Sorrell, told AAP men significantly outnumbered women in those roles in Australia.

But no one could tell AAP how many Australian moustachioed men were in the leadership positions.

The websites of the selected US medical schools were searched to identify leaders, such as the chair, chief or head of each specialty.

For each department leader, the researchers collected their medical specialty, institution and gender, as well as the presence of moustache on men.

All forms were counted, including the Copstash Standard, Pencil, Handlebar and Supermario, as well as moustaches in combination with other facial hair such as the Van Dyke, the Balbo and the Napoleon III Imperial.

Women made up more than 20 per cent of leaders in only five specialities, moustachioed men in 10 - the thickest being sported in psychiatry.

The researchers suggest the statistics could be addressed by increasing the number of women in leadership positions or by asking men in those roles to shave their moustaches.

"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."