DiaLog: Toward Gender Equity in Academic Medicine

From OncoLog, March 2007, Vol. 52, No. 3

DiaLog: Toward Gender Equity in Academic Medicine

Elizabeth Travis, Ph.D., Associate Vice President, Women Faculty Programs

The percentage of women graduating with medical and doctorate-level degrees in the biological sciences has been slowly increasing over the past 25 years, and today, women outnumber men in both undergraduate and graduate programs in the sciences. For at least a decade now there has been a rich pipeline of women to staff and lead the ranks of academic medicine. However, the proportions of female faculty and leaders in academic medicine do not reflect this reality.

While men are fairly equally distributed across academic medicine, the distribution of women in the ranks forms a pyramid, with a large assistant professor base (38%) and a small minority (16%) as full professors. Furthermore, women make up only 16% of all tenured faculty and only about 10% of top leadership.

Why is it that at a time when the future prosperity of the United States increasingly depends on training more physicians, scientists, engineers, and mathematicians, we are we not capitalizing on this ready pool of talent? Global competition for scientific talent is increasingly fierce; we can’t afford to underutilize women’s potential as leaders in medicine and science any longer.

The barriers are unintentional, but they are deeply rooted in our culture. The practices in academic medicine still assume a traditional family structure, with a non-working spouse upholding family obligations. Today’s reality is often a two-career household with intensive workweeks, though family responsibilities still fall primarily to women. Professional structures and expectations often overlook these realities, and in so doing, unwittingly close the doors on rich resources of leadership.

Programs to accommodate the unique needs of women are beneficial but haven’t made substantial progress toward professional gender equity. Rather than developing more programs aimed at “fixing the women,” I think it’s time to concentrate more on “fixing the institutions.”

For example, one of the first initiatives should be increasing the number of women at the leadership tables of academic medicine. Studies show that the dynamics change as three or more women are added to the mix. Second, no program can equal the clear example set by a president, dean, or chair communicating in words and actions the importance of both men and women in leading the organization. When this happens, others notice and the culture begins to change. M. D. Anderson has underscored and reaffirmed its commitment to developing female leadership through the recent appointment of an associate vice president for Women Faculty Programs. I’ve accepted this challenging, but exciting, task.

But this is not only a leadership issue. The subtle practices and assumptions at the root of the problem are often best recognized and changed at the grassroots level—among individuals and workgroups and departments.

For more information on this topic or for questions about M. D. Anderson’s treatments, programs, or services, call askMDAnderson at (877) MDA-6789.

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