Why Don't More Women Rise to Leadership Positions in Academic Medicine?

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. - Feb. 23, 2015 - PRLog -- Even as more women are pursuing careers in academic medicine, and now comprise 20% of full-time faculty in medical schools, they are not rising to senior leadership positions in similar numbers as men. The National Faculty Study evaluated the gender climate in academic medicine and identified several factors related to the current work environment that are contributing to this disparity, and these are described in an article in Journal of Women’s Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com/). The article is available free on the Journal of Women’s Health (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/jwh.2014.4848) website until March 23, 2015.

Coauthors Phyllis Carr, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA), Christine Gunn and Samantha Kaplan, MD, Boston University School of Medicine, Anita Raj, PhD, University of California, San Diego, and Karen Freund, MD, Tufts University School of Medicine (Boston, MA), found a lack of gender equality in the following areas: fewer women achieving leadership positions, disparities in salary, more women leaving academic medicine, and a disproportionate burden of family responsibilities and of balancing work and home life on women’s career advancement. Better methods to track the careers of women and greater institutional oversight of the gender climate are needed, conclude the authors of the article “Inadequate Progress for Women in Academic Medicine: Findings from the National Faculty Study (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/jwh.2014.4848).”

“Despite some progress in improving the climate for women in academic medicine, inequities persist that must be addressed,” says Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Women’s Health, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women’s Health, Richmond, VA, and President of the Academy of Women’s Health.

“The powerful effect of innate bias has been documented. Its effect in the academic medicine sphere needs to be considered,” says Rita R. Colwell, PhD, President of the Rosalind Franklin Society and Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

About the Journal
Journal of Women’s Health (http://www.liebertpub.com/jwh) (http://www.liebertpub.com/jwh), published monthly,is a core multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the diseases and conditions that hold greater risk for, or are more prevalent among women, as well as diseases that present differently in women. The Journal covers the latest advances and clinical applications of new diagnostic procedures and therapeutic protocols for the prevention and management of women’s healthcare issues. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Women’s Health (http://www.liebertpub.com/jwh) website. Journal of Women’s Healthis the official journal of the Academy of Women’s Health (http://www.academyofwomenshealth.org/) and the Society for Women’s Health Research.

About the Academy
Academy of Women’s Health(http://www.academyofwomenshealth.org/) is an interdisciplinary, international association of physicians, nurses, and other health professionals who work across the broad field of women’s health, providing its members with up-to-date advances and options in clinical care that will enable the best outcomes for their women patients. The Academy’s focus includes the dissemination of translational research and evidence-based practices for disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of women across the lifespan. Journal of Women’s Health and the Academy of Women’s Health are co-presenters of Women’s Health 2015: The 23rd Annual Congress (http://academyofwomenshealth.org/conference/)  which will take place April 16-19, 2015 in Washington, DC.

About the Society
The Rosalind Franklin Society (http://www.rosalindfranklinsociety.org/) is an honorific, interdisciplinary, and international society which recognizes, fosters, and advances the important contributions of women in the life sciences and affiliated disciplines. In so doing, the Society honors the under-recognized achievements of the late Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958), a British x-ray crystallographer whose work producing x-ray images of DNA was crucial in the discovery of its structure by James Watson and Francis Crick. Franklin symbolizes progress for women in science but her accomplishments were not recognized during her lifetime, awarded posthumously, nor are they completely acknowledged today. To celebrate the life, work, and symbolic power of this remarkable heroine in science, the Society recognizes the work of outstanding women scientists, fosters greater opportunities for women in the sciences, and motivates and educates by examples young generations of women who have this calling. For information, please visit the Rosalind Franklin Society (http://www.rosalindfranklinsociety.org/) website.

About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com/) is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including LGBT Health, Population Health Management, and Breastfeeding Medicine. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry’s most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm’s 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com/)

website.