Purpose-built for physicians
Women physicians often take on mentorship roles rather than “institutionally recognized leadership positions,” but there are solutions that may help level the playing field, according to experts.
Although the presence of women in U.S. medical schools has grown over the last 25 years, equitable representation in medical leadership “remains elusive,” Annie Koempel, PhD, MA, RDN, LD, a qualitative scientist with the American Board of Family Medicine, and colleagues wrote in a study recently published in Family Practice.
For example, according to a recent analysis of Council of Academic Family Medicine Educational Research Alliance data, from 2011 to 2023, there was a 61% increase in female representation among family medicine department chairs in the U.S., yet women still accounted for just 37.5% of these positions overall.
Yalda Jabbarpour, MD, director of the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies, said the reasons for this are “probably multifactorial.”
