Table 3.

Illustrative quotes from free text answers for the 4 CCWAS domains.

CCWAS domain	Free text answer
1. Equal access
“There are many inequities in opportunities given—be it protected time, vacation, advancement opportunities. When this is brought up, I am told ‘it will get better.’ However, I see others getting opportunities, and I feel I am still lacking.”
“I constantly have to fight for space for myself and my lab, but at the same time, I am criticized for not growing the lab fast enough.”
“I’ve noticed I’m most often asked to take minutes at meetings, which precludes me from participating as much as I would like.”
“I have lost traction and opportunities during each pregnancy. People have been reluctant to give me opportunities once they know I’m pregnant, but it can take years to recover from the missed opportunity.”
“I am chosen for a lot of leadership work but do not have enough protected time or compensation for these roles.”
“Compensation is opaque … It is also unclear how to negotiate for increases. When asked, I was told from leadership that getting another job offer is the best way to negotiate salary.”
2. Work-life balance
“There is no formal support. A competitive environment favors overwork.”
“We are ridiculously overworked, undervalued, and there is no time for the core academic mission.”
“The culture is that everyone emails and Zoom calls at all hours of the day/night and on weekends; We are expected to join calls even when we are driving our kids to school or during family dinner time. There are no boundaries that are respected, including when we take vacation. And when we do return, there’s a disgruntled sense that we have to make up the time.”
“There should be support in place for faculty who need to take time off, like hiring someone for that temporary amount of time off. That would ensure the faculty stays productive while still taking on family responsibilities, without jeopardizing productivity and promotions.”
“It is standard in my division to make up the call you miss on maternity leave.”
“I don’t have any children and feel that I am expected to be flexible and able to cover the clinic significantly more often than those who have kids.”
“Loss of administrative support has added hours of extra work to my plate each week, taking away from productivity or valuable time with my family.”
3. Supportive leadership
“Our Chair/Chief is making an effort to improve things but is stymied by senior faculty intent on preserving the old-school ways.”
“While I think leader support is important and the tone set by the Chair/Chief is influential… I think systemic, structural, and cultural changes are needed to address a lot of these things, it cannot be up to one person.”
“There are multiple toxic members in our workplace that the Chair/Chief does not have the power to fire.”
“The Chair/Chief has removed leadership opportunities from faculty who have challenging family situations. Rather than working with the faculty members to help figure out how to be supportive, they just categorically decided to remove them and has commented that they doesn’t think they are able to do it, when evidence shows otherwise.”
4. Freedom from gender bias
“I have been yelled at by my department chair in front of my lab members. Have also experienced other faculty belittled because of ethnicity.”
“I feel like I can report gender bias, but often that nothing will be done.”
“I was attacked verbally, insulted and undermined for being openly gay.”
“I have had patients say inappropriate things to me based on my gender.”
“When I have had interactions with abusive patients, I routinely receive no support in setting limits, and the manager typically handles the situation by disparaging me to others.”
“I received an inappropriate recommendation for promotion into an education rather than a research track.”