Study Finds Widespread Gender Bias and Sexual Harassment in Academic Medicine

A study led by Reshma Jagsi, associate professor in the department of radiation oncology at the University of Michigan, found that sexual harassment of women in academic medicine has declined significantly since 1995. However, sexual harassment continues to be a major problem.

A survey was sent to all 1,719 recipients of early career development grants from the National Institutes of Health between 2006 and 2009. The results showed that 30 percent of all women and 4 percent of men in academic medicine said they had been sexually harassed. An earlier survey in 1995 found that half of all women in academic medicine reported they had been sexually harassed, as had 5 percent of men in the field.

In addition, in the latest survey 70 percent of women in academic medicine said they had witnessed gender bias in the workplace and 66 percent they had experienced it personally. Only 22 percent of men in academic medicine reported that they had seen gender bias in the workplace.

Dr. Jagsi is a summa cum laude graduate of Harvard University and received her medical training at Harvard Medical School. As a Marshall Scholar, Dr. Jagsi earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in comparative social policy at the University of Oxford in England.

The study, “Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Experiences of Academic Medical Faculty,” was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It may be accessed here.