Perceived Obstacles to Career Success for Women in Academic Surgery

Abstract

THE PAST 2 decades have seen an increasing interest in women's participation in academic medicine. For at least the past 10 years, the number of female medical students has risen steadily, leading to an expectation of parallel increases in female academic physicians and leaders. The latter does not seem to be the case. In 1998, women were chairs at only 3 departments of internal medicine.¹ Controversies remain, many of which are contributed to by individual studies in different specialty areas, as well as others that focus on physicians at different stages of their training. This raises questions about how men and women perceive their academic environment and if women are leaving academic medicine at a disproportionate rate compared with men. Identification of problems inciting women to leave academic medicine, or to remain within the academic environment without advancing to the highest levels, might lead to avenues for addressing these issues, either by changing departmental structures and processes or by attempting to increase individual awareness and education. There are likely issues that are common across a range of specialties, as well as ones specific to given areas of practice. This article reviews published studies that contribute to an understanding of the perceptions and advancement of women in surgery within the context of reporting the results of a survey of both male and female surgeons at 1 academic center.