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Review
. 2019 Mar;34(3):356-362.
doi: 10.1007/s11606-018-4547-y. Epub 2018 Jul 12.

A Summary Report from the Research Partnership on Women in Science Careers

Phyllis L Carr  1 , Deborah Helitzer  2 , Karen Freund  3 , Alyssa Westring  4 , Richard McGee  5 , Patricia B Campbell  6 , Christine V Wood  5 , Amparo Villablanca  7
Affiliations
Review

A Summary Report from the Research Partnership on Women in Science Careers

Phyllis L Carr et al. J Gen Intern Med. 2019 Mar.

Abstract

Background: In response to the landmark report "Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering," the NIH Office of Research on Women's Health issued a request for applications that funded 14 R01 grants to investigate causal factors to career success for women in STEM. Following completion of the 4-year grants, the grant PIs formed a grassroots collaborative, the Research Partnership on Women in Science Careers.

Objective: To summarize the work of the Research Partnership, which resulted in over 100 publications.

Methods: We developed six themes to organize the publications, with a "Best Practices" for each theme at the end of each section: Barriers to Career Advancement; Mentoring, Coaching, and Sponsorship; Career Flexibility and Work-Life Balance; Pathways to Leadership; Compensation Equity; and Advocating for Change and Stakeholder Engagement.

Results: Women still contend with sexual harassment, stereotype threat, a disproportionate burden of family responsibilities, a lack of parity in compensation and resource allocation, and implicit bias. Strategies to address these barriers using the Bronfenbrenner ecological model at the individual, interpersonal, institutional, academic community, and policy levels include effective mentoring and coaching, having a strong publication record, addressing prescriptive gender norms, positive counter-stereotype imaging, career development training, networking, and external career programs such as the AAMC Early and Mid-Career Programs and Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM).

Conclusions: Cultural transformation is needed to address the barriers to career advancement for women. Implementing the best practices noted of the work of the Research Partnership can help to achieve this goal.

Keywords: biomedical sciences; institutional climate; leadership; mentoring; women’s careers; work-life balance.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they do not have a conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Social ecological model of the potential levels of interventions for gender Equity in academic medicine.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Carr PL, Raj A, Kaplan SE, Terrin N, Breeze JL, Freund KM. “Gender differences in academic medicine in retention, rank and leadership: a quantitative study” Academic Medicine. (In press) - PMC - PubMed
    1. Burgess DJ, Joseph A, Van Byr M, Carnes ML. Does stereotype threat affect women in academic medicine? Acad Med. 2012;87(4):506–509. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0b013e318248f718. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Sciences and Engineering. National Academy of Science and Engineering and Institute of Medicine. National Academies Press. 2006. Washington, D.C. http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11741.html. - PubMed
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