Medical women: internet resource
July 2006
Academic medicine
Academic medicine in particular is failing to attract and retain female staff, and women are currently under-represented throughout this field, despite the fact that they constitute a growing proportion of the medical workforce. The BMA’s medical academic staff committee (MASC) is working to address this under-representation of women in academic medicine.
Women who do choose to enter academic medicine are likely to face barriers as they establish and maintain their research careers.
An evaluation of the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) found that in the field of clinical medicine only 43 per cent of teaching-and-research female academics were counted as being research active compared to 60 per cent of male academics in the same field (see reference 42).
The BMA report, 'Women in academic medicine: challenges and issues' (2004) - read more here, found that women often feel that there are few senior posts and that a ‘glass ceiling’ effect is in place for some posts (see reference 43). Age, skills, and values affect their career path, which may result in a more circuitous route to careers in medical academia. Assertive men and women, for example, are often regarded differently in the same setting. Assertiveness in women is perceived as negative, whereas in men it is positive. Women also tend to be less ‘visible’ than male colleagues, for example at conferences and networking situations. It is harder for women to progress up the career ladder within academic medicine. There is a culture of out-of-hours work, such as meetings, particularly in universities. Women are generally considered to be lateral thinkers and to have good communication and time management skills all of which can be of great benefit in academic medicine.
A BMA report, 'Encouraging women to work in academic medicine' (2003) - read more here, argued that in order to promote women in the profession, there needs to be a significant structural and cultural change within the workplace (see reference 44). This includes encouraging opportunities for balancing work and life responsibilities, such as caring for children or elderly relatives; there are fewer schemes to allow for flexible working in academic medicine than in the NHS. It would also be beneficial if institutions were able to provide childcare facilities as many doctors who are parents must consider the accessibility of their childcare arrangements. Women are often penalised or disadvantaged because of gaps in their curriculum vitae attributable to career breaks, such as maternity leave. Significantly more women than men would prefer the opportunity to work part time. Part-time working is, however, not always a possibility because of the pressures and expectations of academic medicine (see reference 43). The choice to take a career break should no longer be a hindrance in this field.
One possible solution is that women feeling isolated or part of a fragmented group could benefit greatly from role models and mentoring.
The Academy of Medical Scientists, in partnership with the DH, provides a mentoring scheme to support clinician scientists, a scheme that has proved to be valuable and popular (see reference 45).
The BMA report, Exploring mentoring (2004) - read more here, makes recommendations on the implementation of mentoring schemes for medical practitioners (see reference 46), while a 2005 report put some examples of academic medicine ‘role models’ clearly in the public domain (see reference 47).
The Athena Project - go to the website at www.athenaproject.org.uk here, established by the UK higher education funding councils, Universities UK and Office of Science and Technology, aims for the advancement and promotion of the careers of women in science, engineering and technology (SET) in higher education and research to achieve a significant increase in the number of women recruited to top posts. Salary and award gaps between men and women must be reduced, permitting women to reach targets in garnering research grants and writing publications (see reference 44).
Finally, academic positions should be well advertised so that all doctors have equal access to the positions available, in particular women should not be disadvantaged because they are less inclined than men to prospectively put themselves forward.