Abstract
Purpose: Women physicians do not advance in academic promotion or leadership at the same rate as their male counterparts. One factor contributing to academic promotion and advancement is the experience of serving in elected leadership positions. Although >400 women are running for political office in 2018, fewer than a handful are physicians and there has never been a woman physician elected to the Congress. Yet, little is known about women physicians who run for elected positions within their institutions, medical/professional societies, or government. This study sought to examine how women physicians experience elections using a cross-sectional survey of women physicians to gain insight into patterns of reported experiences and perceived barriers to elected leadership positions.Methods: A cross-sectional survey study of 1221 women physicians.Results: 43.8% (N=535) of women physicians ran for an elected office from high school through medical school graduation, in contrast to only 16.7% (N=204) after graduating from medical school. Only 8.5% of women physicians surveyed reported a boss or supervisor encouraged them to run for an elected position.Conclusion: Women physicians are less likely to run for elected positions and for those with previous election experience, the most common barriers cited were lack of institutional time and support, experience, and mentorship.
Highlights
Numerous studies have documented the disparity between men and women in leadership roles in medicine, at the highest levels.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11] For example, Schor found that only 15% of U.S medical school deans were women, and the positions they held tended to focus more on image and education as opposed to men who were more likely to focus on corporate strategy and policy, finance, or government relations.[12]
A total of 1221 women completed the survey for analysis; 898 women from the Physician Mom Group (PMG) (n = 900/71,000, 1.3% response rate) and 320 women from the Style M.D. (SMD) group (n = 320/7265, 4.4% response rate)
Election history and outcomes (1) Have you ran for an elected office during your school years? (2) If yes, did you win? (3) Since you finished your medical training have you ever run for an elected office at your workplace? (4) If you ran for an elected office at work, did you win? (5) Since you finished your medical training have you ever run for an elected office at medical or other professional society? (6) If you ran for an elected office at a medical or professional society, did you win? (7) Since you finished your medical training have you ever run for an elected political/government office? (8) If you ran for an elected political/government office, did you win?
Summary
Numerous studies have documented the disparity between men and women in leadership roles in medicine, at the highest levels.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11] For example, Schor found that only 15% of U.S medical school deans were women, and the positions they held tended to focus more on image and education as opposed to men who were more likely to focus on corporate strategy and policy, finance, or government relations.[12] She concluded that gender stereotypes continue to drive the dearth and roles of women in these positions.
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