Women in academic medicine: developing equality in governance and management for career progression


April 2008

The Women in Academic Medicine (WAM) Project has launched its full report ‘Women in academic medicine: developing equality in governance and management for career progression’.

The WAM project was funded through the HEFCE Leadership, Governance and Management (LGM) Fund, the British Medical Association (BMA), the Medical Women’s Federation (MWF) and Imperial College London. It may be downloaded by using the link to the right.

The report aimed to find out the barriers to women’s careers in medicine, both in the NHS and in Universities. Medical academics are the group of doctors that train the future generation of doctors, provide innovation through medical and health service research and provide leadership and high quality patient care in the NHS. Despite the recent and very welcome investment in health research, academic medicine is failing to attract and retain senior 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 report identifies barriers to women’s careers, tests personal and institutional assumptions on career progression, provides a baseline database for future studies to evaluate improvements. Importantly, it also identifies solutions and promotes the sharing of good practice.

The Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, has contributed the foreword to the report and will also be attending the launch. He will be joined by a range of key decision-makers, opinion formers and experts to discuss how the findings of the report can be addressed and the recommendations taken forward.

The report was launched at the House of Lords on Wednesday 30 April, at an event chaired by Baroness Finlay of Llandaff. The speakers included:
  • Sir Liam Donaldson – Chief Medical Officer
  • Theresa May MP –Shadow Leader of the House of Commons and Shadow Minister for Women
  • Professor Parveen Kumar – Immediate Past President, British Medical Association
  • Mr David Noyce – Higher Education Funding Council for England
  • Dr Anita Holdcroft – Co-Chair, Medical Academic Staff Committee, BMA

    © British Medical Association 2008

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Download the report in PDF format (220 k)

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