October 9, 1998 

Phyllis Carr, MD

Parental responsibilities limit careers of women in academic medicine

Child care responsibilities appear to be a major reason why female medical school faculty members often advance more slowly in their careers than their male counterparts.

In a study in the Oct. 1 Annals of Internal Medicine, Phyllis Carr, MD, of the MGH Women's Health Associates, and collaborators at Boston Medical Center report results of a survey of almost 2,000 representative faculty members at 24 US medical schools, measuring their career progress, satisfaction and academic productivity.

"While there have been several studies that have compared the progress of male and female faculty members, this is the first paper to show that children and family specifically have effects on the careers of women in academic medicine," says Carr, the paper's lead author. She notes that previous studies that focused on women's promotion to associate and full professor showed little effect because they controlled for standard measures of academic productivity, such as research grants and publications. "Our results show that those productivity measures are exactly the factors most powerfully impacted by family responsibilities."

The survey found that women with children reported fewer peer-reviewed publications, slower career advancement and less career satisfaction than did men with children. Women with children also reported receiving less research funding from their institutions and less secretarial support. No significant differences in any of these areas were seen between female and male faculty without children. Specific obstacles to career advancement for women with children included meetings held before 8 am, after 5 pm or on weekends; lack of on-site child care, emergency leave or other leave options; and the absence of part-time tenure tracks at their institutions.

"The limitations of the current system mean that academic medical centers are not taking full advantage of the talents and skills of many women," says Carr. "And something that this survey was not able to show us is how many women have decided to leave academic medicine because of their family responsibilities, a number we would expect to be significant."

Helping women at the MGH

The Partners Office for Women's Careers (OWC) at the MGH was established in 1997 with the goal of strengthening career advancement and enhancing job satisfaction for women at the MGH. Directed by Nancy Tarbell, MD, the OWC is one of the programs designed to help eliminate the obstacles that can keep women from advancing in their careers. Other MGH efforts include the new Back-up Child Care Center and the Claflin Awards, which provide extra support to women pursuing promising research careers while raising children. For more information about the OWC, call 4-5229 or e-mail OWC@mgh.harvard.edu.