Gender Disparity in Academic Gastroenterology: Beginning of the End of the Underrepresentation of Women?
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Gender Disparity in Academic Gastroenterology: Beginning of the End of the Underrepresentation of Women? Jason J. John1 · Elizabeth S. John2 · Lauren Pioppo3 · Arjun Gupta4 · Sita Chokhavatia5 · Amy Tilara6 Received: 18 March 2020 / Accepted: 22 October 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Background Though there are an increasing number of female medical graduates, women remain underrepresented in academic medicine. There have been several reasons to explain this gender disparity, including marital status, number of children, number of hours worked, job flexibility, perceptions of women as inferior leaders, gender bias, sexual harassment, and unsupportive academic climates. Aims This study aimed to investigate the relationship between scholarly productivity and the representation of female gastroenterologists in academia. Specifically, scholarly productivity measured by the h-index and academic rank were explored to determine if there were gender disparities in academic productivity and rank in gastroenterology. Methods Gastroenterology departmental listings were obtained from the Fellowship and Residency Interactive Database of the American Medical Association. The Scopus database was used to record each physician’s h-index. Statistical analyses were conducted with Wilcoxon rank-sum test, which compared matched samples by academic rank, and ANOVA tests, which compared multiple academic ranks. Results Out of 1703 academic gastroenterologists, women account for 25% of academic physicians. Women have statistically lower h-indices at the level of Assistant Professor (p = 0.0012), and at the level of Chair (p = 0.01). There was no difference in h-indices between male and female at the rank of Associate Professor and Professor. Conclusions While these results mirror patterns appreciated in other fields of medicine, the results at the rank of Chair may suggest that despite the lower h-index compared to their male counterparts, females are perceived as having strong inherent leadership skills outside of academic productivity that are also conducive to leading a department and may be contributing to their rise to Chair. Keywords: gender gap; academic gastroenterologists; scholarly productivity; academic rank; H-index. Keywords Gender gap · Academic gastroenterologists · Scholarly productivity · Academic rank · Hindex
Introduction
* Jason J. John [email protected] 1
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, 1201 E. Marshall St, Richmond, VA 23298, USA
2
Methodist Dallas Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
3
Rutgers University Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
4
Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY, USA
5
Valley Medical Group, Paramus, NJ, USA
6
Advanced Gastroenterology Associates, Allied Digestive Health, West Long Branch, NJ, USA
While female representation in academic medicine has drastically increased, women continue to remain underrepresented in all stages of their careers, from medical school to
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