Gender Influences in Mentoring Biomedical Scientists

Objectives for this session:

At the end of this session, participants should be able to:

1. Summarize current trends regarding the recruitment, advancement, and retention of women and ethnic minorities in academic medicine.

2. Describe eight barriers to advancement in academic medicine for these groups.

3. Present strategies for intervening in discrimination at the macro- (institutions) and micro- (individual faculty) level.

Case 27
You are a member of a NIH grant study section in your area of clinical research. Out of a cohort of 17 proposals you have noticed that 6 out of the bottom 10 scored proposals had an individual with X characteristic as the PI. In your view, only 2 of those proposals merited the low scores. Your panel is made up of 10 white men, a white woman, and an African-American woman. You are a Y.

What should you say/do?

Variations:

27a. X = white woman Y = black woman

27b. X = white male Y = black woman

27c. X = Hispanic surname- man Y = white man

27d. X = Hispanic surname - man Y = white woman

27e. As in 27c and 27d but X = woman with Hispanic surname

27f. As in 27e but Y = Hispanic man

Case 28
As (woman/ethnic minority) in a male-dominated department, you find that (variation) occurs routinely and that you may be the only person to notice this (variation) pattern. What should you say/do? (Treat each variation as an independent occurrence – at least for the first portion of discussion.)

28a. Important departmental meetings are scheduled in the early mornings and on weekends.

28b. Women/ethnic minorities are assigned to less-dynamic mentors in the relevant research area.

28c. You are routinely, and more frequently, interrupted by (white) men in meetings.

29. As a senior faculty you notice that faculty retention for (women, a particular ethnic group) is poor.

Textbook reading assignments: none

Articles for this session:

Carnes, M. and Bland, C., A Challenge to Academic Health Centers and the National Institute of Health to Prevent Unintended Gender Bias in the Selection of Clinical and Translational Science Award Leaders.Academic Medicine, February 2007;82(2):202-206.

Fried, L. P., Francomano, C. A., MacDonald, S. M., Wagner, E. M., Stokes, E. J., Carbone, K.
M., Bias, W. B., Newman, M. M., & Stobo, J. D. (1996). Career development for women in
academic medicine: Multiple interventions in a department of medicine. Journal of the American Medical Association, 276, pp.898-905.

Nonnemaker, L. (2000). Women physicians in academic medicine. New England Journal of
Medicine, 342, pp. 399-405.

Tesch, B. J., Wood, H. M., Helwig, A. L., & Nattinger, A. B. (1995). Promotion of women
physicians in academic medicine. Glass ceiling or sticky floor? Journal of the American Medical Association, 273, pp. 1022-1025.