A Commentary on Impact of Women-Focused Professional Organization and Academic Retention and Advancement: Perceptions from a Qualitative Study.

Despite the steady increase in female medical students and female faculty in the US, there has been little change in the distribution of women across the ranks of assistant, associate, and full professor over the past 30 years. Women are substantially less likely than men to be full professors even after accounting for age, experience, specialty, and measures of research and clinical productivity. From 2009 to 2017, the percentage of female faculty in emergency medicine dropped from 3% to 1.8%, while it stayed relatively stable for men (9% to 8.8%). In addition to academic rank disparities, a gender pay gap exists in most medical specialties, and emergency medicine is no exception. A 2017 study by Madsen et al., showed a salary gap of $19,462 in academic emergency medicine, with women earning less than men regardless of rank, clinical hours, or training. This gap persists throughout a woman's medical career, compounding the financial loss over time. It appears that simply increasing the number of academic female physicians in the pipeline has not been enough to correct problems of career inequity. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.