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Abstract
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INTRODUCTION: People with red hair may be exposed to bullying in their young years and thereby risk suppressing their opportunities in the further education system. This entails a risk that their academic potential will not be expressed in further career planning. The purpose of the current article was therefore to investigate the prevalence of red hair compared to other hair colours in a well-defined group of professors.
METHOD: All clinical professors in the Department of Clinical Medicine at the University of Copenhagen were included in the study. The hair color of the professors was determined by finding pictures online in which the hair colour was visible. Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram were searched. If the hair colour was grey or if the person was bald, older photos were found to determine the original hair color. Based on the prevalence of red hair in the Danish population, we expected to find 5% with red hair in the group of professors.
RESULTS: A total of 236 professors were included in the study. Of these, 4 (1.7%) were red-haired, 132 (55.9%) dark-haired, 100 (42.4%) light-haired, and 0 (0%) could not be classified. This distribution was significantly different from the expected one (p = 0.000000).
CONCLUSION: People with red hair were underrepresented in the group of clinical professors. There therefore seems to be a need for dedicated programs with e.g. research funds with preference for red-headed or reserved academic positions to enable this group to gain a better foothold in the academic environment.
FUNDING: None.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: Not applicable.
Language: da |