Research led by the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Kansas City evaluated more than 670,000 physician graduates between 1979 and 2019 to determine whether gender, race and ethnicity were associated with career advancements.
White men, who accounted for nearly 44% of graduates, were more likely to be promoted compared with physicians of nearly every other combination of gender, race and ethnicity. However, white men were hired to entry-level positions at lower rates than Black, Asian and white women and Asian men, the study found.
Before 2000, Black women were 55% less likely to be promoted to associate professor and 41% less likely to be promoted to full professor compared to white men. Black men were more likely to be promoted to department chair than white men.
The study examined full-time faculty appointments and promotions to instructor; assistant, associate and full professor; and department chair.
One of the study’s authors, Taneisha Scheuermann, PhD, said these findings highlight a need for academic medicine to change its culture.
“I feel like we should approach these issues with curiosity,” Dr. Scheuermann, an associate professor of population health at KU Medical Center, said in a Jan. 24 news release. “Think of all the training it takes to go through medical school and (then) to be a professor. If we can retain them and promote them and help them to develop and contribute to our country, it’s going to be good for everybody.”