1. Gender Differences in Faculty Promotions
Terry Maratos-Flier
Amy Cohen
Amy Sullivan
What can we learn from the BIDMC faculty roster?
January 30, 2018

2. Data Sources 1. Faculty Roster (2016) 2. Faculty Survey (2014)
Snapshot profile of faculty with their current ranks and their promotion history at BIDMC
2. Faculty Survey (2014)
Shapiro Institute for Education and Research survey to assess the needs and satisfaction levels of BIDMC faculty as related to career development, worklife, and support for teaching.

3. Faculty Snapshot Data Source: Faculty roster as of NOV 2016
Data on promotion history
Census:
All faculty= 1981
Fulltime faculty= 1516
Fulltime faculty located at BIDMC= 1210

4. Race distribution

5. Gender distribution
40%
60%

6. Department distribution

7. Boxplots* compare the medians, quartiles, & range of the data
*Boxplots because the distributions are skewed
Whiskers show the range of the data (not including outliers, if any)

8. There are proportionally fewer women with each advance in rank
Female
(52% F)
Male
(41% F)
(30% F)
(7.5% F)

9. What are potential explanations for the fall off of women with advancing rank?
What other information might be helpful?

10. Current Instructors N=526, 52% are women
Years in current position (median=4.2)
Female
Male
Age at current rank (median=34)

11. Current Assistant Professors N=344 41% are women
Years in current position (median=5.4)
There are fewer women than men
Female
Female
P=.03
Male
Male
Years as instructor before promotion* (median=7)
Age at current rank (median=42)
P=.03
*If they were instructors at BIDMC

12. Current associate professors
Years in current position
Median=5.4
30% are women
Female
Male
Years as assistant before promotion*
Median=6.6
Age at current rank
Median =46
N=187
*If they were assistants at BIDMC

13. Current professors Years in current position Median=6.8 7.5% are women
Female
Male
Age at current rank
Median=46
Years as associate before promotion*
Median=9.2
*If they were associates at BIDMC

14. Years in previous position before promotion
Instructor  Assistant
Assistant  Associate
Associate  Professor
Median=7 years
Median=6.6 years
Median=9.2 years

15. Years in current rank

16. Age at current rank

17. Median time for promotion instructor  assistant professor 7 years
Median time for promotion assistant  associate 7 years
Any info about faculty that have been at rank 6-8 years?

18. Not making the transition to leadership
Publications by Assistant Professors and Associate Professors in previous 10 years (may include fellowship).
Women = 29, men = 23
Not making the transition to leadership
Collaboration network is not as good

20. 2016 BIDMC data: total
485 women faculty of 1210 total, at BIDMC
40% total faculty are women
274 instructors, 140 assistant professors,
57 associate professors, 10 full professors
2015 AAMC data: total
42266 women faculty of 121,372 total, nationally
37% total faculty are women
4661 instructors, assistant professors,
7643 associate professors, 4777 full professor

21. What’s the pool of potential women faculty?
8 years training  2001 grads, done 2009, instructors in 2010
7 years as instructor  1996 grads, done 2004, instructors 2005, assistant professors 2012
7 years as assistant professor  1986 grads, done 1994, instructors 1995, assistant prof 2002, associate prof 2009, prof 2018
9 years as associate professor  1981 grads, done 1989, instructors 1990, assistant prof 1997, associate prof 2004, prof 2013
If going into academics and getting promoted were a “stochastic” process at the moment 30% of all professor of medicine should be women.

22. BIDMC compares with national numbers in terms of distribution of women compared to men at the instructor, assistant professor and associate professor level.
At the professorial level BIDMC has proportionately fewer professors compared to men professors. 10% or less compared to 20%. Also lower than Harvard which is about 17% across medical school.
What about professors at BIDMC?

23. Male Professors are more likely to have joined BIDMC at higher ranks*
*Temporary lecturer positions (<1 year) are classified with their subsequent rank.
Number of faculty

24. 21 Professors started at Professor rank; 0 of them is a woman

25. 51 male Professors started above Instructor rank; 0 female Professors did

26. # of recruited appointments, by decade
Each dot=1 person

27. Relevant results from faculty survey 2014
Satisfaction questions
Questions on how faculty allocate time between:
Hours per week worked clinical duties, research, teaching, mentoring, administration, work at home

28. Response rate for faculty survey 2014
N=553, response rate ~30%
Female
Male

29. The proportion of women at each rank shows the same pattern as the faculty census
Female
Male

30. Mean hours worked per week 62.5 (sd14.3)
24% of both genders do not have mentor but wished they had one
Women tend to be less satisfied with research, esp at instructor and assistant professor level

31. Satisfaction with current rank
No gender differences in satisfaction with current rank

32. Median number of hours per week on clinical duties

33. Women instructors report fewer research hours
Median=0
50% vs 70% report any research
Median number of
hours on research
Women instructors report fewer research hours
~70%
~75%
~90%

34. Median number of hours per week teaching
Medians ~4-5% for all groups

35. Median number of hours per week
mentoring

36. Median number of hours per week administrative duties

37. Median number of hours working at home

38. Limitations
The faculty roster is limited to retrospective data about current faculty
No data on those who left BIDMC before 2016
Incomplete data on career arc if did not start as instructor at BIDMC
The faculty survey response rate is low

39. A few take home messages:
Fewer women who start as instructors are promoted to assistant professor. The disappear and we don’t know why they leave.
There is a lag for women instructors vis a vis promotion (2 years)
Instructor level women are less likely to engage in any scholarly activity.
Instructor level women report more hours of clinical activity
There is a lag in publications that may also reflect slower advancement to leadership positions and problems with networking.
Faculty themselves?
Environment?
Senior faculty?

40. Suggestions for next steps?
Personal level:
Know the criteria for promotion and aim to achieve them.
Publications are still critically important.
Keep in mind that you can be promoted on the basis of longer term service after 10 years.
Get advice from people you respect who are senior to you.
Compare yourself to others at your rank in your department!
Keep your CV up to date.

41. Suggestions for next steps?
We don’t really know why women leave in excess to men and why at early career stage they are doing less scholarship and more clinical.
Needs to be assessed by individual departments.
Exit interviews
Longitudinal data

42. Thanks for your attention.
This was a joint effort, couldn’t be done with out Amy Cohen and Amy Sullivan
Richard Schwartzstein support
Amber Lovendale