A Significant Gender Gap in Academic Cardiology

A new study led by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital explores the gender gap in faculty appointments in academic cardiology. The study found that women were significantly less likely than men to be full professors, even when adjusting for factors such as age, years of experience, and research productivity that are traditionally associated with academic rank.

The study found that while the proportion of women in cardiology has risen from 5 percent in 1996 to 12 percent in 2013, cardiology still has the lowest proportion of women of any medical specialty.

The low level of women in cardiology is reflected in the academic world. The current study surveyed 3,800 cardiologists from the faculty roster of the Association of American Medical Colleges. The authors found that 16.5 percent of all academic cardiologists were women. In the overall, unadjusted analysis, female cardiologists were less likely to be full professors (15.9 percent versus 30.6 percent for males). The data showed that there were significant differences in the size of the gender discrepancy across the 109 U.S. medical schools, but at none of them were women equally likely to be full professors.

Daniel M. Blumenthal, the lead author of the study, states that “these findings highlight a potential inequity in how men and women in academic cardiology are recognized and rewarded for their work and could reflect the fact that women face persistent barriers to academic advancement. Addressing any inequities facing women in cardiology will be critical to the success of efforts to recruit more women into our specialty.”

The study, “Sex Differences in Faculty Rank Among Academic Cardiologists in the United States,” was published in the journal Circulation. It may be accessed here.