#Me_Who Anatomy of Scholastic, Leadership, and Social Isolation of Underrepresented Minority Women in Academic Medicine.

Abstract

In academic medicine, under-represented minority women physician-scientists (URMWP)* are uncommon, particularly in leadership positions. Data from the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) show that among internal medicine chairs, there are 12 Asian males, 10 African/American (blacks; 9 men), 7 Hispanics (2 females) and 137 whites (21 females). In the top 40 ranked cardiology programs, there are no female cardiology chiefs, whereas there are at least 10, 2, 1 and 24 Asian, black, Hispanic and white males respectively. There are more URMWP than URM males, yet URMWP are less likely to be professors and occupy leadership positions in academia. Specifically, among United States medical school faculty, relative proportions at assistant, associate and full professor levels according to race/ethnicity and gender have remained essentially unchanged over the past 20 years. AAMC information demonstrates that only 11%, 9%, 11% and 24% of Asian, black, Hispanic and white women are full professors compared with 21%, 18%, 19% and 36% of Asian, black, Hispanic and white men. Additionally, while there are representative proportions of women and Asians at the lowest faculty levels, they have not equitably progressed in academic medicine, likely reflecting discrimination and structural/organizational barriers that are also applicable to black and Hispanic females 1 .