Contact: Jennifer Bush
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For Immediate Release
AAMC STUDY SHOWS WOMEN ARE LESS LIKELY THAN MEN TO ACHIEVE SENIOR FACULTY RANKS IN ACADEMIC MEDICINE
Washington, D.C., February 9, 2000 -- While the number of women at all levels of academic medicine is increasing, they continue to lag behind their male counterparts in entering the senior ranks of the profession, according to a new study from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) published in the Feb.10 New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). The study's author is Lynn Nonnemaker, Ph.D., director of qualitative studies for the AAMC's Center for the Assessment and Management of Change in Academic Medicine.
"The results highlight the continued need to ensure equal opportunity for women in academic appointments and promotions. In addition, they demonstrate the need for a better balance of male and female role models for purposes of education, research, and service," writes Dr. Nonnemaker. "The large disparity between the proportion of women enrolled as students in medical schools and the proportion of women who hold senior faculty positions may discourage women from pursuing academic careers in the future."
In an effort to determine whether, irrespective of possible differences in timing, women physicians in academic medicine are less likely than men to advance beyond the junior faculty ranks, Dr. Nonnemaker studied the proportions of advancing men and women to the ranks of assistant, associate, and full professor for all U.S. medical school graduates from 1979 through 1993, and for all members of U.S. medical school faculty from 1979 through 1997. Cohorts were defined on the basis of the year of graduation from medical school, track (tenure/non-tenure), and academic department.
During the study period, 634 more women became faculty members than men, or approximately 10 percent more women than would be expected with proportional representation of men and women. The numbers of women who advanced to the ranks of associate and full professor were significantly lower than the expected numbers, however. A total of 334 fewer women advanced to associate professor than expected, and 44 fewer women advanced to full professor than expected.
According to Dr. Nonnemaker, possible explanations as to why women are less likely than men to advance to the senior ranks of academic medicine include: lower productivity, as measured by numbers of publications or external grants; fewer hours devoted to their work; and fewer resources provided by the medical school.
Dr. Nonnemaker's study, which was supported, in part, by The Commonwealth Fund, is accompanied by an editorial from Catherine D. De Angelis, M.D., Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
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The Association of American Medical Colleges represents the 125 accredited U.S. medical schools; the 16 accredited Canadian medical schools; some 400 major teaching hospitals, including 74 Veterans Administration medical centers; 91 academic and professional societies representing nearly 88,000 faculty members; and the nation's 67,000 medical students and 102,000 residents.
Additional information about the AAMC and U.S. medical schools and teaching hospitals is available at http://ww.aamc.org/newsroom.
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