Is Academic Medicine Making Mid-Career Women Physicians Invisible?

Abstract

In this perspective piece, we describe a multifactorial phenomenon whereby academic women physicians become invisible in the mid-career stage. Barriers, both small and large, cause a cumulative inequity effect, and women may leave academic medicine. Certainly, family and lifestyle choices play a role. And as we describe, so is a situation created where women become discouraged and disillusioned. We describe the growing evidence of subtle disparities, or micro-inequities, that cause women to be less visible and marginalized. Over time, early career women transition to mid-career with an accumulation of these micro-inequities. Women have more difficulty in building their academic portfolios and curriculum vitae-core components of academic promotion. They comprise greater than 50% of the health care workforce; yet, they are underrepresented in top leadership positions. For example, only 22% of full professors, 18% of department chairs, and 17% of medical school deans are women. Macro-inequities, which are observable and measurable, are also well documented. For example, women receive less compensation than men for the same job. We examine the contributing and causative processes and offer suggestions on how to promote equity among highly qualified mid-career women as they graduate from training and move beyond the early career stage.

Citizenship Tasks and Women Physicians: Additional Woman Tax in Academic Medicine?

“…While studies have comprehensively investigated benefits and disadvantages of participating in citizenship tasks for work, 4,[6][7][8] few have explored how demographic factors impact self-perception and citizenship task load, especially among women physicians. [18][19][20][21][22] Our study highlights similar work found in the nonmedical literature as it pertains to gender and citizenship work tasks. 14,16,17,19,21,22 We found that the majority (67.0%) of women physicians reported spending between 1 and 5 hours weekly on work-related citizenship tasks and that nearly 50.0% of the women physicians surveyed reported a perception that they do more work-related citizenship tasks than their male colleagues.…”

“…For example, literature has shown that men are rewarded for their altruistic work tasks, while women are expected, not rewarded, to enroll in similar activities. 1,2,9 A recent focus on the culture and climate of the workplace, [10][11][12][13] together with reports documenting slow progress in closing many gaps for people underrepresented in medicine (URiM), [14][15][16][17] inclusive of women in medicine, [18][19][20][21][22] has led us to consider the role that citizenship tasks may play. For example, although asking someone to take notes during a meeting that they are already attending may seem like a benign request, even small tasks may promote gender bias and expectations if a supervisor tends to ask primarily women who attend the meeting to record and disseminate minutes.…”

Intention to Leave Emergency Medicine: Mid-career Women Are at Increased Risk

“…Mid-career seems to be a particularly vulnerable time for female physicians. 17 , 28 , 29 , 30 Additionally, the notable decline in women who rise to higher ranks of leadership and seniority in EM 28 , 31 could be either a contributor to, or a result of, potentially higher burnout rates for women.…”

Estado actual de las mujeres en la fuerza laboral en urología. Análisis bibliométrico

“…19,20 Por otra parte se encontró que la fuerza laboral femenina reporta menor edad que su contraparte masculina y se encuentra en su mayoría casadas y con al menos 1 hijo a diferencia de décadas anteriores 4 ; con poca frecuencia toman tiempo libre antes del parto y toman menor licencia de maternidad. 6,12,17,18 La producción científica en países desarrollados da cuenta de la mayor cantidad de manuscritos en relación con el tema de estudio, sin embargo la producción científica es liderada por hombres 21 Los países con menor grado de desarrollo socioeconómico muestran en forma objetiva, que el tema de inclusión femenina en fuerza laboral no es una de sus prioridades actualmente. El principal investigador del tema fuerza laboral encontrado en el análisis, corresponde a un hombre de Estados Unidos, lo que genera algo de preocupación al no tratarse de alguien del mismo género.…”