Although men and women working in academic medicine strive toward advancement, significantly fewer women achieve leadership positions, says a study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

For the past decade, women have made up about 50% of medical students, according to the Assn. of American Medical Colleges. Meanwhile, the average medical school has 43 female full professors compared with 192 male full professors, said Linda Pololi, MD, lead study author and senior scientist at the Womens Studies Research Center at Brandeis University in Massachusetts.

Those numbers are still absolutely shocking, and without a good explanation, she said.

To gain insight into the cultural barriers women face in academic medicine, researchers surveyed 4,578 full-time faculty at 26 U.S. medical schools. They found that women reported a lower sense of belonging and support and were more pessimistic about gender equity and their chances for advancement compared with men. Women also were less likely to believe that their institutions were family-friendly or to see their values as aligning with the institutions.

The average medical school has 43 female full professors and 192 male full professors.

The findings, published online Aug. 31, demonstrate that medical schools have failed to create an environment where women feel fully accepted and supported to succeed, said Dr. Pololi, director and principal investigator of the National Initiative on Gender, Culture and Leadership in Medicine, also known as C-Change, which engages medical schools in research aimed at attaining equality in academic medicine.

The study proves wrong the notion that women are less ambitious than men. It shows that both genders have equal leadership aspirations and are equally engaged in their work, she said.

Women care very deeply about having a rich professional life, Dr. Pololi said.

The findings are not surprising and reinforce previous research, said Page S. Morahan, PhD, founding director and director of research at the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine Program for Women at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia.

We have seen this over and over again, she said.

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Women face cultural barriers in academic medicine