Identifying Positive and Negative Factors That Affect the Promotion of Clinical Faculty at the Wayne State University School of Medicine: Does Gender Matter?

Abstract

Introduction: Despite well-documented gender disparity in academic medicine, there are many women who achieve success, including successful promotion to associate and full professor status. This study sought to determine whether there was a gender difference in the perception of positive and negative factors affecting the process of promotion to associate or full professor at the Wayne State University School of Medicine (WSUSOM).Methods: All clinically active associate and full professors who achieved their most recent promotion at the WSUSOM were sent a link to a survey that obtained demographic information as well as the opinions of the respondents regarding what positive and negative factors impacted their most recent promotion.Results: Of the 73 respondents (24%), 58 (19%) were included in our final analysis. Two obstacles ("Lack of interest and encouragement from institutional or departmental leaders" and "Lack of tangible commitment from institutional or departmental leadership [e.g., protected time]") were ranked in the top three ranks by a substantially greater percentage of females than males. Gender-specific networking was seen as significantly more valuable to female faculty members whereas having a stay-at-home partner was seen as significantly more valuable to male faculty members. Conclusion: At the WSUSOM, providing more gender-specific networking for women, increasing interest and encouragement from institutional and departmental leaders, and providing a tangible commitment to female faculty from these leaders may help more women to achieve promotion to associate or full professor.

An Empirical Study of Promotion Pressure among University Teachers in China Using Event History Analysis

“…Specifically, women were promoted later compared to men [ 29 ]. Messman et al [ 30 ] found that the median time required for males to achieve their most recent promotion was 6.5 years, which was one year shorter than that of female teachers.…”

“…Ponjuan et al (2011) noted that gender matters in terms of satisfaction and attrition [ 35 ]. Meanwhile, Messman et al [ 30 ] found that, compared to female faculty, the proportion of male faculty who had worked at the WSUSOM for less than 10 years was higher.…”