Medical Schools That Are Doing Their Part to Close the Gender Gap in Faculty Ranks

Last week, a WIAReport post noted that data from the American Association of Medical Colleges showed that in 2017 there were 70,992 women faculty members at U.S. medical schools. There were 103,126 male faculty members. Thus, women made up 40.7 percent of all medical school faculty.

Additional data on new hires to medical school faculty offers information on which medical schools are making the best effort to eliminate the gender gap in faculty ranks. The statistics show the average percentage of women among all new faculty hires at U.S. medical schools for the three-year period beginning in the fall of 2013 to the spring of 2016. During this period, women were 47 percent of new faculty hires at all U.S. medical schools.

During this period, women made up at least 60 percent of all new hires at six medical schools. Leading the list was the medical school at the University of Hawaii, where 65 percent of all new hires were women. Women were 64 percent of the new faculty hires at the medical school of the University of Colorado. Women also made up at least 60 percent of the new hires at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, the University of North Dakota, Geisinger Commonwealth in Pennsylvania, and Baylor University in Texas.

At the other end of the spectrum there were still 27 medical schools where women were less than 40 percent of all new faculty hires. At Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, women were only 27 percent of new faculty hires during the period. This was the lowest percentage among all U.S. medical schools. At the University of Toledo, women were 30 percent of new hires. Women were less than 35 percent of new medical school faculty hires at the University of California, Riverside and Florida International University.