Barriers to Advancement in Academic Medicine: the Perception Gap Between Majority Men and Other Faculty

Lori Brand Bateman; Laura Heider; Selwyn M Vickers; William A Anderson; Anthony C Hood; Evelyn Jones; Corilyn Ott; Sequoya Eady; Mona N Fouad

doi:10.1007/s11606-020-06515-5

Barriers to Advancement in Academic Medicine: the Perception Gap Between Majority Men and Other Faculty

J Gen Intern Med. 2021 Jul;36(7):1937-1943. doi: 10.1007/s11606-020-06515-5. Epub 2021 Jan 27.

Authors

Lori Brand Bateman^{1

2}, Laura Heider³, Selwyn M Vickers⁴, William A Anderson⁴, Anthony C Hood⁵, Evelyn Jones⁴, Corilyn Ott^{4

6}, Sequoya Eady⁴, Mona N Fouad⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Medicine, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA. loribateman@uabmc.edu.
² Division of Preventive Medicine, UAB School of Medicine, 1717 11th Avenue South, Birmingham, AL, USA. loribateman@uabmc.edu.
³ Office for Diversity and Inclusion, Oschner Health, Baton Rouge, LA, USA.
⁴ School of Medicine, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA.
⁵ Collat School of Business, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA.
⁶ School of Nursing, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA.

Abstract

Background: According to the American Association of Medical Colleges, women comprise 26% of full professors and 19% of medical school department chairs. African American and Latino faculty comprise 4.6% of full professors and 6.9% of department chairs.

Objective: Because of the lack of representation of women and racial/ethnic minority faculty at the highest levels of academic medicine, this study examines the perceptions of barriers to advancement by men and women academic medical school faculty of differing races and ethnicities to explore potential differences in perceptions by demographic group.

Design: Semi-structured one-on-one interviews were conducted between July and September 2017.

Participants: In order to give all faculty a chance to participate, faculty of all ranks and specialties were recruited from one southeastern medical school to participate in the study.

Approach: Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed by 3 members of the research team using an inductive approach to thematic analysis. Participants were organized into 4 groups for analysis-underrepresented in medicine (URiM) women, majority women, URiM men, majority men.

Key results: Sixty-four faculty consented to participate in the study (56.2% women, 34.4% URiM). Subthemes were grouped under three main themes: Perceptions of Barriers to Advancement of Women Faculty, Perceptions of Barriers to Advancement of African American and Latino Faculty, and Perceptions of the Institutional Climate for Diversity. Majority men tended to voice distinctly different perspectives than the other three demographic groups, with the most notable differences between majority men and URiM women. Majority men tended to suggest that the advancement of women and URiM faculty was acceptable or getting better, the lack of URiM faculty in leadership was due mainly to pipeline issues, and women choose not to advance to leadership positions.

Conclusion: We found that participant gender and race/ethnicity shaped perspectives of medical school faculty advancement in distinct ways.

Keywords: academic advancement; academic medicine; underrepresented in medicine; women.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Career Mobility*
Ethnicity*
Faculty, Medical
Female
Humans
Male
Minority Groups
Perception
Schools, Medical
United States