Women's leadership in academic medicine: a systematic review of extent, condition and interventions
Open Access
- 1 January 2020
- Vol. 10 (1), e032232
- https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-032232
Abstract
Objectives Because culture reflects leadership, the making of diverse and inclusive medical schools begins with diversity among leaders. The inclusion of women leaders remains elusive, warranting a systematic exploration of scholarship in this area. We ask: (1) What is the extent of women's leadership in academic medicine? (2) What factors influence women's leadership? (3) What is the impact of leadership development programmes? Design Systematic review. Data sources A systematic search of six online databases (OvidMEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, the Cochrane Library and ERIC) from the earliest date available to April 2018 was conducted. Bridging searches were conducted from April 2018 until October 2019. Eligibility criteria (1) Peer-reviewed; (2) English; (3) Quantitative studies (prospective and retrospective cohort, cross-sectional and preintervention/postintervention); evaluating (4) The extent of women's leadership at departmental, college and graduate programme levels; (5) Factors influencing women's leadership; (6) Leadership development programmes. Quantitative studies that explored women's leadership in journal editorial boards and professional societies and qualitative study designs were excluded. Data extraction and synthesis Two reviewers screened retrieved data of abstracts and full-texts for eligibility, assessment and extracted study-level data independently. The included studies were objectively appraised using the Medical Education Research Quality Study Instrument with an inter-rater reliability of (kappa=0.93). Results Of 4024 records retrieved, 40 studies met the inclusion criteria. The extent of women's leadership was determined through gender distribution of leadership positions. Women's leadership emergence was hindered by institutional requirements such as research productivity and educational credentials, while women's enactment of leadership was hindered by lack of policy implementation. Leadership development programmes had a positive influence on women's individual enactment of leadership and on medical schools' cultures. Conclusions Scholarship on women's leadership inadvertently produced institute-centric rather than women-centric research. More robust contextualised scholarship is needed to provide practical-recommendations; drawing on existing conceptual frameworks and using more rigorous research methods.This publication has 85 references indexed in Scilit:
- Does Stereotype Threat Affect Women in Academic Medicine?Academic Medicine, 2012
- Race, Disadvantage and Faculty Experiences in Academic MedicineJournal of General Internal Medicine, 2010
- Advancing Women Faculty to Senior Leadership in U.S. Academic Health Centers: Fifteen Years of History in the MakingNASPA Journal About Women in Higher Education, 2010
- The Culture of Academic Medicine: Faculty Perceptions of the Lack of Alignment Between Individual and Institutional ValuesJournal of General Internal Medicine, 2009
- The happy docs study: a Canadian Association of Internes and Residents well-being survey examining resident physician health and satisfaction within and outside of residency training in CanadaBMC Research Notes, 2008
- Experiences of belittlement and harassment and their correlates among medical students in the United States: longitudinal surveyBMJ, 2006
- Capitalizing on Womenʼs Intellectual Capital in the ProfessionsAcademic Medicine, 2002
- Career obstacles for women in medicine: an overviewMedical Education, 2001
- Sexual Harassment in Medical TrainingThe New England Journal of Medicine, 1993