GRIT: Women in Medicine Leadership Conference Participants’ Perceptions of Gender Discrimination, Disparity, and Mitigation

Abstract

Objective: To assess demographic characteristics and perceptions of female physicians in attendance at a medical conference for women with content focused on growth, resilience, inspiration, and tenacity to better understand major barriers women in medicine face and to find solutions to these barriers. Patients and Methods: A Likert survey was administered to female physicians attending the conference (September 20 to 22, 2018). The survey consisted of demographic data and 4 dimensions that are conducive to women’s success in academic medicine: equal access, work-life balance, freedom from gender biases, and supportive leadership. Results: All of the 228 female physicians surveyed during the conference completed the surveys. There were 70 participants (31.5%) who were in practice for less than 10 years (early career), 111 (50%) who were in practice for 11 to 20 years (midcareer), and 41 (18.5%) who had more than 20 years of practice (late career). Whereas participants reported positive support from their supervisors (mean, 0.4 [SD 0.9]; P<.001), they did not report support in the dimensions of work-life balance (mean, −0.2 [SD 0.8]; P<.001) and freedom from gender bias (mean, −0.3 [SD 0.9]; P<.001). Conclusion: Female physicians were less likely to feel support for work-life balance and did not report freedom from gender bias in comparison to other dimensions of support. Whereas there was no statistically significant difference between career stage, trends noting that late-career physicians felt less support in all dimensions were observed. Future research should explore a more diverse sample population of women physicians.