Examining the Gender Gap in Medical School Faculty

A new report published in Academic Medicine, the journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, examines the gender break down of medical school faculty. The analysis of faculty at 134 U.S. medical schools found a total of 138,508 full-time faculty members. Of these, 50, 376, or 36 percent, were women.

The data showed that for medical schools that had a clinician-educator track, 77 percent had a higher proportion of women on that track than men. For medical schools with a traditional tenure-track, only 20 percent had a majority of women in tenure-track positions.

The authors state that “given that faculty on the clinician-educator track lag behind their traditional tenure-track colleagues in academic promotion, these findings may contribute to continued challenges in gaining academic and leadership parity for women in academic medicine.”

The article, “Gender Distribution of U.S. Medical School Faculty by Academic Track Type,” may be accessed here.