Table 1.
The extent of women’s leadership and its emergence in academic medicine
| Source | Population/setting | Outcome | Examination of leadership emergence | |||
| Self-nomination vs appointment | Length of holding position | Dual position appointment | Mentor/sponsor | |||
| Women in leadership positions within one-specialty | ||||||
| Baecher-Lind55 | Obstetrics and Gynaecology departments associated with the Council of University Chairs of Obstetrics & Gynecology. | 20% of DCs (p<0.001). |
None | None | None | None |
| Cancian et al 57 | US Urology leadership programmes. | 1.6% of DCs and 11.2% of PDs. | None | None | None | None |
| Cheng et al 59 | US Emergency departments. | 7.5% of DCs and 15% of PDs. Departments chaired by women had significantly higher percentage of women faculty (p=0.01). Departments chaired by women were more likely to have women PDs (p<0.01). |
None | None | None | None |
| Counter et al 60 | US faculty in academic Pediatric Radiology. | 56.8% of director, chair, division head/chief 66.7% vice chair, assistant/associate director. |
None | None | None | None |
| Doyle et al 63 | US Psychiatry chairs. | 10% of chairs were women Male chairs were more likely than female chairs to head large departments (95% CI = [-17.1-69.1], p = 0.02) |
Women leaders were appointed. | Women leaders on average held position for 5.3 years, compared with men leaders who held positions for 9.1. | None | Women leaders had mentors |
| Epperson et al 65 | US Otolaryngology residency and fellowship programmes. | 18.6% of residency and fellowship directors 5.1% of chairs. |
None | None | None | None |
| Han et al 67 | US Urology residency programmes. | 3.3% of DCs, 4.5% of vice chairs and 7.9% of division directors. For educational leadership roles, women comprised 9.4% of fellowship directors, 8.1% of residency directors and 27.4% of medical student clerkship directors. | None | None | None | None |
| Moghimi et al 77 | Nuclear medicine in Canada and USA. | 13.6% of leadership. | None | None | None | None |
| Monroe et al 78 | Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. | 50% of PDs, 33% PDs assistant/associate director, 27% fellowship PDs, 80% of fellowship programme assistant/associate director and 37% of educational PDs. Women assistant professors were more likely to hold leadership positions than were men assistant professors (p=0.03). |
Women leaders were appointed. | None | None | None |
| Odell et al 79 | Neurosurgery in Canada and USA. | 7.45% primary leadership 4.69% secondary leadership. |
None | None | None | None |
| Rotbart et al 82 | Promotion track faculty the University of Colorado School of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics. |
25% of section heads and 14% of vice-chairs. | None | None | None | None |
| Shah et al 83 | US Radiology residency programme directors. | 10.7% of DCs, 42.9% of PDs. Gender composition of radiology faculty and residents does not differ significantly according to gender of leaders. |
None | None | None | None |
| Shah et al 84 | US Ophthalmology residency programmes directors. | 2% of DCs and 34% of PDs. Gender composition of ophthalmology faculty and residents does not differ significantly according to gender of leaders. |
None | None | None | None |
| Woodward et al 90 | US Gastroenterology fellowship programmes. | 18% of PDs, 28% of associate PDs, 7% of division chiefs. Gender of fellowship PDs and gender of division chief (p=0.0327), no association with faculty or resident composition. |
None | None | None | None |
| Women in leadership positions across several specialties | ||||||
| Burden et al 56 | US academic adult Hospital Medicine (HM) and General Internal Medicine (GIM) programmes. | 16% of division or section heads of HM were women 35% of division or section heads of GIM were women (p=0.008). |
None | None | None | None |
| Hofler et al 69 | US academic departments of Anesthesiology, Diagnostic Radiology, General Surgery, Internal Medicine, Neurology, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Pathology, Pediatrics and Psychiatry. | Women comprised 13.9% of DCs, 22.6% of vice chairs, 21.6% of division directors and 39% of PDs. Women significantly under-represented in the combined leadership positions for all specialties (ratios 0.61 or less; all p<0.001) except anaesthesiology and radiology. |
None | None | None | None |
| Long et al 74 | US residency programme identified as the largest in JAMA. 95 | 25.8% of PDs overall were women. PDs 35.2% Obstetrics, 49% Pediatrics, 23.6% Family Medicine, 34.6% Psychiatry, 24.3% Internal Medicine, 18.8% Emergency Medicine, 29% Anesthesiology, 10.8% Surgery, 27.7% Radiology, 6.5% Orthopedics. |
None | None | None | None |
| Puljak et al 80 | University of Split School of Medicine in Croatia. | 18%–21% of DCs in 1997–2006. | None | None | None | None |
| Reed et al 81 | Women scholarly clinicians employed at Mayo Clinic with 20 or more years of service at Mayo Clinic, who spend more than 25% of their professional effort directly providing patient care. |
56% of women held divisional, departmental, institutional or national positions during their careers. Total leadership position attainment between men and women (p<0.001). |
None | None | None | None |
| Weiss et al 54 | US General Surgery, Orthopedic Surgery, Otolaryngology, Neurosurgery, Plastic Surgery and Urology programmes. | General surgery chairs 3% and PDs 10% (p=0.002). Orthopedic Surgery 0% and PDs 6% (p=0.002). Otolaryngology 5% of chairs and 13% of PDs (p=0.045). Neurosurgery 1% of chairs and 3% of PDs. Plastic Surgery 6% of chairs and 9% of PDs. Urology 3% of chairs and 6% PDs. |
None | None | None | None |
| Wright et al 91 | Faculty members of the School of Medicine at the University of Arizona. | 55% served as committee chair, 10% as section or division head and 8% as DCs. As compared with men: (p=0.03), (p=0), (p=0.003). |
Comment on self-assessed leadership potential. Women were appointed. | None | None | None |
| Women leaders across several institutions or countries | ||||||
| Carr et al 58 | US academic medical faculty. | 10% of women in sample had leadership roles (p<0.0001). After adjusting for scholarly productivity, the (OR = 0.49, 95% CI = [0.35 - 0.69]) | None | None | None | None |
| Kvaerner et al 72 | Norwegian physicians. | 6.4% of women were leaders. | None | None | None | None |
| Stadler et al 87 | Clinician educators and leadership of competency based graduate medical education in Qatar, Singapore and UAE. | 22.1% of PDs and 22.1% of associate PDs. | None | None | None | None |
DC, department chair; PD, programme director.