Work-life and family-life factors served as obstacles to satisfaction and retention of the women faculty studied. Many of these factors reflect challenges attributable to subtle gender bias and the intersection of work and family life. The authors provide examples showing that medical schools can implement policy changes that support faculty who must balance work and family responsibilities. Identification and elimination of gender bias in areas such as promotion, salary, and resource allocation is essential.

The results emphasize the importance of having both formal and informal mentors who perform mentoring behaviors associated with satisfaction and productivity. The results provide a preliminary indication that mentor types and specific mentoring behaviors may have different effects on satisfaction and productivity. Despite the differences found for some behaviors, it seems that it is more essential that mentoring behaviors be performed by any mentor than by a specific type of mentor.