Women have been entering academic medicine at nearly the same rate as men for decades, but very few women reach the top levels of leadership. For example, as of April 2022, of the 71 U.S. cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute, only seven are directed by women. In 2018, women accounted for 16% of medical school deans, 18% of department chairs and 25% of full professors. To this day, women are still less likely than men to become associate or full professors of medicine or to be appointed as chairs of university medical departments – and there has been no narrowing of this gender gap over time.
I am a cancer researcher, physician and surgeon, and I also study gender inequity within medicine. In my most recent research, I interviewed more than 100 people in medicine to better understand why women struggle to advance in academic medicine. From this work, one important reason seems to be that women are consistently excluded from important, male-dominated networking activities, especially golf.
