Browse the corpus

Career success for women in academic medicine: eight self-help strategies. Women in academic medicine encounter unique challenges, including implicit biases. They are underrepresented in scholarly activities, including as authors, editorial board members, conference speakers, and guideline panels. In this special article, we suggest eight strategies that women can use to ensure their voices are heard and to reduce the overall gender disparity in academic medicine. These include crafting an academic mission, celebrating successes, building a community, recognising implicit biases, taking risks, exploring creative work-life integration strategies, and learning from mistakes.

Develop an academic mission and strategic plan that describe the focus of your academic work, the methodologies you will master, and the anticipated impact of your work in your field. Only commit to projects that interest you, dovetail with your mission, and are feasible. This approach will keep you focused and goal oriented. Protect your time and do not accept too much ‘academic housework’.6 Feel empowered to advocate for the equal sharing of less desirable and impactful tasks. Be wary of the ‘minority tax’, which is the extra, often uncompensated burden placed on individuals from underrepresented groups to take on diversity-related work, mentorship, and emotional labour on top of their regular responsibilities.7 Learn how to negotiate for opportunities, jobs, equitable remuneration, and research support.8

Women may assume that their hard work and successes will be spontaneously recognised and rewarded.9 This is not the case. Share your successes (e.g. awards, grants, speaker invitations, and letters of appreciation) with your leaders and your community and use social media to amplify them. Prepare for annual review meetings by compiling a list of your accomplishments and successes, and share them with pride.

We all need and thrive within supportive clinical and scholarly communities. Women are less likely to have mentors and sponsors than men.10,11 Build your network of champions: men and women, senior and junior allies, and colleagues with whom you can share your successes and challenges, and who can serve as mentors and sponsors in your academic journey. Be direct in asking for mentorship and sponsorship. Select your mentors and sponsors carefully and rationally, and be prepared that these people may change through your career trajectory. Build a network of national and international collaborators. At conferences and meetings, seek out collaborators. Prepare an ‘elevator pitch’ that sums up your work, what you are hoping to achieve, and how you might work collaboratively. Trade contact details and follow up promptly with new contacts.

Women who are confident and assertive are judged negatively by both men and women.12 As such, women often seek to be ‘likeable’. Do not perpetuate gender biases regarding gender norms of communication and leadership style. If you perceive that a woman colleague is overly assertive, ask yourself if you would judge a man in the same way. Similarly, speak up for women colleagues if you hear biased negative comments about their communication or leadership style. Point out the role that gender bias plays in these judgements. Be an advocate for yourself and other women. Introduce yourself and women colleagues using your professional titles. Correct patients, family members, and colleagues if they make gendered or inappropriate comments about you or other women.13 Have some statements ready in response to common micro-aggressions and deliver them calmly (e.g. ‘Your views are no longer contemporary’).14

Do not underestimate your capabilities and contributions. You got to where you are because of talent and hard work. Compared with men, women suffer more from the imposter syndrome15: they are less likely to view themselves as qualified for new opportunities and more likely to wait for self-perceived mastery before pursuing leadership or other challenging opportunities, even if they are equally skilled. This confidence gap contributes to the under-representation of women in leadership positions in all sectors of society.2 Share your thoughts and ideas in professional settings, as your voice is very valuable. Take risks: nominate yourself for awards and apply for leadership roles. You have nothing to lose!

Everyone fails and makes mistakes, whether it be a medical error, a grant or manuscript rejection, or being declined for a leadership role. Do not let failures destroy you—grow from them. Focus on what you have learned and what you will do differently if faced with a similar scenario, then move forward. Cultivate self-compassion and identify non-judgemental colleagues who understand the situational context and with whom you feel safe speaking about the failure and your emotions. Sharing your challenges and lessons learned with trainees will help to change the culture of shame and silence associated with medical errors or academic setbacks.

Women still bear the majority of household and child- and elder-care responsibilities. If you have a partner and you both work outside the home, strategise how you can share the load. You may have to adjust your standards and abandon your perfectionism.4 If accessible, consider outsourcing food shopping, meal preparation, and housework, or asking your community for support. Give yourself credit for the physical, emotional, and mental load you carry at home—it’s also work. Schedule time for self-care and find ways to nurture your soul. If you are unable to attend early-morning or evening academic events, explain why and ask if these events can be scheduled during the workday. Many of your colleagues, regardless of gender, desire family-friendly scheduling.

Juggling pregnancy, parenting, and a career in medicine is not easy, and can lead to burnout and attrition.16 Learn about your department’s parental leave and compensation policies. Ensure that promotion metrics account for career disruption and output relative to opportunity. When on leave, make it clear that you’ll be focused on your child and yourself, and will not be available for work. Advocate for backfill for parental leave so that your colleagues are not burdened with extra work. Explore options for less than full-time work or job-sharing, and expect breastfeeding accommodation for your return to work. The Dr Milk website provides valuable tips to help physician-mothers achieve their breastfeeding goals at work.17 Women in academic medicine are faced with unique personal and professional challenges, and must be prepared to advocate for themselves. These eight self-help strategies will contribute towards more equitable treatment, career success, and work-life fulfilment for women. When women succeed, the profession succeeds and our patients benefit.