Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 May;26(5):525-529.
doi: 10.1089/jwh.2016.6012. Epub 2016 Aug 10.

Women's Careers in Biomedical Sciences: Implications for the Economy, Scientific Discovery, and Women's Health

Jennifer L Plank-Bazinet  1 , Misty L Heggeness  2 , P Kay Lund  3 , Janine Austin Clayton  1
Affiliations

Women's Careers in Biomedical Sciences: Implications for the Economy, Scientific Discovery, and Women's Health

Jennifer L Plank-Bazinet et al. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2017 May.

Abstract

While women have been well represented in medical school and biomedical doctoral degree programs, they do not comprise half of academic medicine faculty positions. Furthermore, there is a significant paucity of women in academic medicine leadership positions, as evidenced by the fact that only 16% of dean positions at United States Medical schools are filled by women. In this commentary, the authors review the state of women in academic medicine and argue that increased representation of women in the academic workforce will lead to economic gains, increased scientific discovery, and improvements to women's health.

Keywords: academic medicine; biomedical research workforce; careers; gender and economic development; scientific discovery; women in science; women's health.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

No competing financial interests exist.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Proudfoot S. Survey of doctorate recipients, 2013. Washington, DC: National Science Foundation, 2014
    1. Lautenberger DM, Dandar VM, Raezar CL, Sloane RA. The State of Women in Academic Medicine: The Pipeline and Pathways to Leadership 2014. Washington, DC: Association of American Medical Colleges, 2014
    1. Ginther DK, Kahn S, Schaffer WT. Gender, race, ethnicity, and NIH R01 research awards: Is there evidence of a double bind? Acad Med 2016;91:1098–1107 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Heggeness ML, Evans L, Reineke Pohlhaus J, Mills SL. Measuring diversity of the National Institutes of Health-Funded Workforce. Acad Med 2016;91:1164–1172 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Moss-Racusin CA, Dovidio JF, Brescoll VL, Graham MJ, Handelsman J. Science faculty's subtle gender biases favor male students. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2012;109:16474–16479 - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources