TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding the Barriers to Hiring and Promoting Women in Surgical Subspecialties
AU - Valsangkar, Nakul
AU - Fecher, Alison M.
AU - Rozycki, Grace S.
AU - Blanton, Cassie
AU - Bell, Teresa M.
AU - Freischlag, Julie
AU - Ahuja, Nita
AU - Zimmers, Teresa A.
AU - Koniaris, Leonidas G.
N1 - Funding Information:
Details regarding current or former NIH funding at the level of the principal investigator were collected from 2 independent sources: the NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools (RePORT) database and the Grantome online database ( http://www.grantome.com/ ). All current or previous NIH grants, including the funding amount, years funded, and type of NIH award were collected. The NIH awards were categorized into 3 broad categories: NIH P01/R01/U01 awards; nonmajor NIH funding (eg F32, K08, R00, R21, R43); and no history of current/former NIH funding. In all cases, the funding data were corroborated between both sources of collection.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 American College of Surgeons
PY - 2016/8/1
Y1 - 2016/8/1
N2 - Background The objective of this study was to characterize potential disparities in academic output, NIH-funding, and academic rank between male and female surgical faculty and identify subspecialties in which these differences may be more pronounced. Study Design Eighty metrics for 4,015 faculty members at the top-55 NIH-funded departments of surgery were collected. Demographic characteristics, NIH funding details, and scholarly output were analyzed. A new metric, academic velocity (V), reflecting recent citations is defined. Results Overall, 21.5% of surgical faculty are women. The percentage of female faculty is highest in science/research (41%) and surgical oncology (34%), and lowest in cardiothoracic surgery (9%). Female faculty are less likely to be full professors (22.7% vs 41.2%) and division chiefs (6.2% vs 13.6%). The fraction of women who are full professors is lowest in cardiothoracic surgery. Overall median numbers of publications/citations are lower for female faculty compared with male surgical faculty (21 of 364 vs 43 of 723, p < 0.001), and these differences are more pronounced for assistant professors. Current/previous NIH funding (21.3% vs 24%, p = NS) rates are similar between women and men, and surgical departments with more female full professors have higher NIH funding ranking (R2 = 0.14, p < 0.05). In certain subspecialties, female associate and full professors outperform male counterparts. Overall, female authors have higher numbers of more recent citations. Conclusions Subspecialty involvement and academic performance differences by sex vary greatly by subspecialty type and are most pronounced at the assistant professor level. Identification of potential barriers for entry of women into certain subspecialties, causes for the observed lower number of publications/citations among female assistant professors, and obstacles for attaining leadership roles need to be determined. We propose a new metric for assessment of publications/citations that can offset the effects of seniority differences between male and female faculty members.
AB - Background The objective of this study was to characterize potential disparities in academic output, NIH-funding, and academic rank between male and female surgical faculty and identify subspecialties in which these differences may be more pronounced. Study Design Eighty metrics for 4,015 faculty members at the top-55 NIH-funded departments of surgery were collected. Demographic characteristics, NIH funding details, and scholarly output were analyzed. A new metric, academic velocity (V), reflecting recent citations is defined. Results Overall, 21.5% of surgical faculty are women. The percentage of female faculty is highest in science/research (41%) and surgical oncology (34%), and lowest in cardiothoracic surgery (9%). Female faculty are less likely to be full professors (22.7% vs 41.2%) and division chiefs (6.2% vs 13.6%). The fraction of women who are full professors is lowest in cardiothoracic surgery. Overall median numbers of publications/citations are lower for female faculty compared with male surgical faculty (21 of 364 vs 43 of 723, p < 0.001), and these differences are more pronounced for assistant professors. Current/previous NIH funding (21.3% vs 24%, p = NS) rates are similar between women and men, and surgical departments with more female full professors have higher NIH funding ranking (R2 = 0.14, p < 0.05). In certain subspecialties, female associate and full professors outperform male counterparts. Overall, female authors have higher numbers of more recent citations. Conclusions Subspecialty involvement and academic performance differences by sex vary greatly by subspecialty type and are most pronounced at the assistant professor level. Identification of potential barriers for entry of women into certain subspecialties, causes for the observed lower number of publications/citations among female assistant professors, and obstacles for attaining leadership roles need to be determined. We propose a new metric for assessment of publications/citations that can offset the effects of seniority differences between male and female faculty members.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2016.03.042
DO - 10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2016.03.042
M3 - Article
C2 - 27109779
AN - SCOPUS:84991227322
SN - 1072-7515
VL - 223
SP - 387-398.e2
JO - Journal of the American College of Surgeons
JF - Journal of the American College of Surgeons
IS - 2
ER -