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Percentage of women leading medical
research studies rises, but still lags behind men
Nearly fivefold increase since 1970
does not reflect numbers of women in medicine
BOSTON - July 19, 2006 - The number of women with leadership
roles in research studies published in major medical journals has
increased significantly over the past three decades, but women remain
under-represented among medical science investigators. In the July
20 New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), a group from the
Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) reports that, among U.S. physician-researchers
leading original studies published in some of the country's most
prestigious medical journals, the proportion who are women increased
almost fivefold from 1970 to 2004.
"We found that women have come a long way, but that there is
still a long path ahead," says Reshma Jagsi, MD, DPhil, lead
author of the study and formerly chief resident in the MGH Department
of Radiation Oncology. "Although women are now entering the
medical profession at the same rate as men, my colleagues and I
had a sense that few of the studies and editorials in journals we
read were authored by women, which might be discouraging to young
women physicians and students. When we realized that no one had
looked over time at the percentage of authors who were women, we
decided to do it ourselves." Jagsi has now joined the faculty
of the University of Michigan Medical School.
The MGH team analyzed the number of women with the key roles of
lead or senior author in papers published in six leading U.S. medical
journals: NEJM, Journal of the American Medical Association
(JAMA), Annals of Internal Medicine, Annals of
Surgery, Journal of Pediatrics, and Obstetrics and
Gynecology. They reviewed all original research reports published
in 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2004 to determine the gender as well
as the academic degrees and institutional affiliations of the lead
and senior authors, restricting their analysis to authors holding
MD degrees from U.S. institutions. They also reviewed editorials
written by invited experts in NEJM and JAMA.
The results showed significant gains over the study period, with
the proportion of lead authors who were women reaching 29 percent
in 2004, compared with 6 percent in 1970; and the proportion of
senior authors who were women reaching 19 percent in 2004, versus
4 percent in 1970. The researchers noted, however, that the rate
of increase may be reaching a plateau, with an apparent slowdown
from 2000 to 2004. In the specialty publications, the greatest increases
were seen in the pediatrics and obstetrics/gynecology journals while
the smallest increase was found in the surgical journal, trends
that echo the representation of women in those fields.
Similar increases were seen in the proportion of invited editorials
written by women. In 1980 no invited JAMA editorials were
written by U.S. women physicians, while almost 19 percent of the
U.S. physician authors of JAMA editorials published in 2004
were women. Only 1.5 percent of the U.S. physician authors of 1970
NEJM editorials were women, a proportion that rose to 20
percent in 2000 but dropped to 11 percent in 2004.
Among possible factors underlying the remaining "gender gap"
in research publication, the authors cite the limited number of
female senior faculty available to act as senior authors or to write
invited editorials, along with competing demands - professional
and personal - on their time. Another potential complication is
that the years during which young researchers traditionally are
most productive - their mid-30s - are also the years of greatest
child-rearing activity.
"The difficulty of maintaining research productivity during
the child-rearing years is a significant obstacle to career advancement
for women in medical research," says Nancy Tarbell, MD, director
of the MGH Office of Women's Careers and a co-author of the NEJM
paper. "The MGH recognized this issue several years ago with
the creation of the Office of Women's Careers, which provides considerable
support and resources for our women faculty members.
"One of our most successful programs is the Claflin Distinguished
Scholar Awards, which provide significant two-year grants to women
junior faculty members launching independent research careers,"
she adds. "The grants have served as seed funding leading to
subsequent support from outside organizations that has far exceeded
the hospital's financial outlay." Tarbell is C.C. Wang Professor
of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School.
The senior author of the NEJM report is Elaine Hylek, MD,
MPH, now at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM). Additional
co-authors are Elizabeth Guancial, MD, Cynthia Cooper Worobey, MD,
and Yuchiao Chang, PhD, of MGH; Rebecca Starr, MBA, MSW, of the
MGH Office of Women's Careers, and Lori Henault, MPH of BUSM.
Massachusetts General Hospital, established in 1811, is the original
and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH
conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United
States, with an annual research budget of nearly $500 million and
major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer,
computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human
genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative
medicine, transplantation biology and photomedicine. MGH and Brigham
and Women's Hospital are founding members of Partners HealthCare
HealthCare System, a Boston-based integrated health care delivery
system.
Media Contact: Sue
McGreevey, MGH Public Affairs
Physician Referral Service: 1-800-388-4644
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