Gender differences in career development awards in United States’ anesthesiology and surgery departments, 2006–2016

Abstract

BackgroundAlthough the status of women in anesthesiology has advanced by many measures, obtaining career development funding remains challenging. Here, we sought to compare the characteristics of funded career development awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) between the specialties of anesthesiology and surgery. We hypothesized that the two groups differ in percentage of faculty with awards, gender distribution among principal investigators, as well as the number of awards promoting diversity.MethodsThe NIH grant-funding database RePORT was queried for career development awards for the years 2006–2016 using the filters “Anesthesiology” and “Surgery.” Grants were characterized based on the gender of the principal investigator and whether the funding opportunity announcement indicated promotion of underrepresented minorities (URM). The 2016 Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) report on “Distribution of U.S. Medical School Faculty by Sex and Rank” was used to adjust comparisons according to baseline gender distributions in anesthesiology and surgery departments. Cohorts were characterized using descriptive methods and compared using Chi-square or Fisher’s exact test.ResultsBased on our AAMC data query, in 2016, the number of women faculty members at the instructor or assistant professor level in U.S. medical schools was 2314 (41%) for anesthesiology and 2281 (30%) for surgery. Between 2006 and 2016, there were 88 career development grants awarded to investigators in anesthesiology departments compared to 261 in surgery departments. Of the grantees in each specialty, 29 (33%) were women in anesthesiology and 72 (28%) in surgery (P = 0.344). Awards to promote URM were identified for two grants (2%) in anesthesiology and nine grants (3%) in surgery (P = 0.737). Faculty members in surgery were more likely to receive an award than in anesthesiology (P < 0.0001), and women were less likely to receive an award than men (P = 0.026).ConclusionsThe major difference between US anesthesiology and surgery departments is that the number of faculty career development awards is significantly higher in surgery departments. Future efforts should aim to identify the reasons for such differences in order to inform strategies that can improve the likelihood for junior faculty members to receive career development funding.

Federal Funding in Emergency Medicine: Demographics and Perspectives of Awardees

“…The proportion of female EM investigators funded under a K mechanism is higher than reported in other specialties such as surgery and anesthesiology, yet the total number of grants overall awarded to women has not changed. 15 This may demonstrate success of recent initiatives to promote research among female junior faculty. While the higher proportion of female-mentored PIs compared to independent PIs may reflect a trend toward gender equity, an alternative explanation may be that female investigators are not successfully transitioning to independent funding status.…”

Burnout from Gender Inequity in a Pandemic

“…Women anesthesiologists have fewer publications as first or senior author in peer-reviewed anesthesiology journals and receive fewer career advancement awards. 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 Women anesthesiologists are less likely to receive invitations to speak at external departmental grand rounds. 19 At national anesthesiology meetings, all-men panels predominate, whereas women represent lower percentages of single or keynote speakers.…”

Women in anaesthesia: a scoping review

“…33 Scholarly productivity (11 articles) Scholarly productivity is recognised as an important factor for career advancement in academic anaesthesiology. 34 Scholarly productivity, a surrogate for 'success in research', 46 was reported in the literature as grant funding, 34,35 recognition awards, 6,36 authorship, 8,29,35,37e39 and presentations at national or international specialty meetings. 40…”

“…Mayes and colleagues 34 reviewed the career advancement awards granted by the US National Institutes of Health (K01, K08, and K23 awards) between 2006 and 2016. They found that women were the recipients of 29 (33%) of the total 88 career development grants awarded to anaesthesiologists during that period.…”