Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges
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One challenge academic health centers face is to advance female faculty to leadership positions and retain them there in numbers equal to men, especially given the equal representation of women and men among graduates of medicine and biological sciences over the last 10 years. The purpose of this study is to investigate the explicit and implicit biases favoring men as leaders, among both men and women faculty, and to assess whether these attitudes change following an educational intervention. ⋯ These results suggest that providing education on bias and strategies for reducing it can serve as an important step toward reducing gender bias in academic medicine and, ultimately, promoting institutional change, specifically the promoting of women to higher ranks.
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Women represent approximately half of students entering medical schools and more than half of those entering PhD programs. When advancing through the academic and professional fields, however, women continually face barriers that men do not. ⋯ Specific areas of focus outlined by the authors include facilitating women's access to formal and informal professional networks, acknowledging and addressing the gender pay gap as well as the lack of research funding awarded to women in the field, and updating workplace policies that have not evolved to accommodate women's lifestyles. As academic institutions seek access to top talent and the means to develop those individuals capable of generating the change medicine and science needs, the authors urge leaders and change agents within academic medicine to address the systemic barriers to gender equity that impede us from achieving the mission to improve the health of all.
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Female representation in academic medicine is increasing without proportional increases in female representation at senior ranks. The purpose of this study is to describe the gender representation in academic gastroenterology (GI) and compare publication productivity, academic rank, and career duration between male and female gastroenterologists. ⋯ A gender gap exists in the number and proportion of women in academic GI; however, after correcting for career duration, productivity measures that consider quantity and impact are similar for male and female faculty. Women holding senior faculty positions are equally productive as their male counterparts. Early and continued career mentorship will likely lead to continued increases in the rise of women in academic rank.
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Over the past 25 years, the number of women graduating from medical schools in the United States and Canada has increased dramatically to the point where roughly equal numbers of men and women are graduating each year. Despite this growth, women continue to face challenges in moving into academic leadership positions. ⋯ They provide brief synopses of current literature on the personal and social forces that affect women's participation in academic leadership roles. They are persuaded that a deeper understanding of these realities can help create an environment in academic medicine that is generally more supportive of women's participation, and that specifically encourages women in medicine to take on academic leadership positions.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Coaching to Augment Mentoring to Achieve Faculty Diversity: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
The Academy for Future Science Faculty (the Academy) is a novel coaching intervention for biomedical PhD students designed to address limitations in previous efforts to promote faculty diversity. Unlike traditional research mentoring, the Academy includes both group and individual coaching, coaches have no research or evaluation roles with the students, and it is based on social science theories. The authors present a qualitative case study of one of the coaching groups and provide statistical analyses indicating whether one year in the Academy effects students' perceptions of the achievability and desirability of an academic career. ⋯ Early results suggest that an academic career coaching model can effectively supplement traditional research mentoring and promote persistence toward academic careers.