Tackling gender disparities in academic physiatry
By Allison Bean, MD, PhD
September was “Women in Medicine” month, with many organizations taking the opportunity to highlight the contributions of their women members. As an academic physiatrist-in-training, I am excited to be entering a field where women have comprised approximately 40% of faculty for more than 20 years. However, I remain concerned about the lack of recognition women continue to receive in both PM&R and academic medicine in general.
Recent publications by Dr. Julie Silver and her colleagues at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, found that women are consistently under-recognized in awards given by medical societies. While women comprise approximately 40% of the AAP membership, between 1990 and 2016, only 20% of awards were given to women. Even more striking was that between 2013 and 2016 women did not receive any awards. As a physiatry resident and Vice Chair of the Resident Fellow Council, I was particularly concerned to learn that no women had received the McLean Outstanding Resident/Fellow award since its inception in 2010.
Dr. Silver describes the failure to recognize women in medical society awards as “mentoring against a closed gate”, where it becomes an ethical issue whether to encourage women trainees and early-career faculty to invest time and financial resources into joining societies if there are disparities in inclusion. Indeed, failure to sponsor women, including but not limited to formal recognition of their work, at the early stages of their careers likely contributes to well-documented gaps in reaching professor and chair level promotions. While percentages have been slowly trending upwards, as of 2016 only 28% of PM&R faculty holding the rank of full professor were women.
The AAP has recently acknowledged the importance of actively supporting women members. At the 2017 Annual Meeting , Drs. Felicia Ambrose and Mooyeon Oh-Park organized a “Women in Physiatry” workshop, focusing on the challenges of being a woman in academic physiatry and providing advice on how to successfully navigate the career track. This workshop was well-received and will be held again during the 2018 Annual Meeting. Also at the 2017 Annual Meeting, outgoing AAP President Dr. Gerard Francisco announced the creation of a Women’s Task Force chaired by Dr. Sara Cuccurullo and Dr. Silver, to further investigate gender disparities within the organization. The work of this group is ongoing.
I am encouraged by the AAP leadership’s willingness to transparently investigate workforce gender issues in our field, and I am hopeful that this will lead to ongoing dialogue, education, and strategic metrics-driven efforts to close these gaps, ensuring that women as well as men from underrepresented groups receive equal support from the organization.
Throughout my residency, I have been continually impressed with intelligence, talent, and drive of many of my fellow women physiatrists. It is time to ensure they receive the recognition they deserve. All trainees deserve equitable support, and women in PM&R must seek out not only mentors but sponsors — individuals who will actively promote us in specific ways that lead to career advancement. Leaders in PM&R, regardless of gender, have many opportunities to provide sponsorship and ensure that our entire future workforce is supported. These efforts are crucial to the future of academic physiatry and the diverse patients we care for in our practices.
Allison Bean, MD, PhD is the 2017–2018 Vice Chair of the AAP Residents Fellows Council and a PGY-3 resident in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Follow her on Twitter: @DrAlliBean.
References:
1. Silver JK, Slocum CS, Bank AM, et al. Where Are the Women? The Underrepresentation of Women Physicians Among Recognition Award Recipients From Medical Specialty Societies. PM R. 2017;9(8):804–815. doi:10.1016/j.pmrj.2017.06.001.
2. Silver JK, Blauwet CA, Bhatnagar S, et al. Women Physicians Are Underrepresented in Recognition Awards From the Association of Academic Physiatrists. Am J Phys Med Rehabil. July 2017:1. doi:10.1097/PHM.0000000000000792.
3. Silver JK, Bhatnagar S, Blauwet CA, et al. Female Physicians Are Underrepresented in Recognition Awards from the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. PM R. 2016:1–9. doi:10.1016/j.pmrj.2017.02.016.
4. Hwang J, Byrd K, Nguyen MO, Liu M, Huang Y, Bae GH. Gender and Ethnic Diversity in Academic PM&R Faculty: National Trend Analysis of Two Decades. Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 2017;96(8):593–595. doi:10.1097/PHM.0000000000000716.
5. Association of American Medical Colleges. Faculty Roster: U.S.Medical School Faculty, 2016. https://www.aamc.org/data/facultyroster/reports/475478/usmsf16.html. Published 2016.
6. Silver J. Diversity and inclusion are core leadership competencies: A primer for busy leaders. Becker’s Hosp Rev. 2017. https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-management-administration/diversity-and-inclusion-are-core-leadership-competencies-a-primer-for-busy-leaders.html.
