Anna S Heffron1,2, Katarina M Braun1,3, Cora Allen-Savietta4, Amarette Filut5, Chelsea Hanewall1, Anna Huttenlocher1,6, Jo Handelsman7, Molly Carnes5,8,9,10. 1. Medical Scientist Training Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA. 2. Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA. 3. Department of Pathobiological Sciences, and University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA. 4. Department of Statistics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA. 5. Center for Women's Health Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA. 6. Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology and Pediatrics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA. 7. Department of Plant Pathology, Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA. 8. Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA. 9. Department of Psychiatry, and University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA. 10. Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
Abstract
Background: Female physician-scientists have led major advances in medicine broadly and particularly in women's health. Women remain underrepresented in dual MD-PhD degree programs that train many physician-scientists despite gender parity among medical and biomedical research students. Materials and Methods: To explore how the training environment might be experienced differently for male and female students in one MD-PhD program, the authors analyzed gender differences in annual symposium speakers with exact binomial tests, student participation as question-askers at a weekly seminar with logistic regression, and number of publications with quasi-Poisson generalized linear models. They compared male and female students' perceptions of gender-based discrimination using a survey, including qualitative analysis of free text responses. The program consisted of 71 total students in the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 academic years. Female students comprised 42.0% (81/191) of program matriculants from 1997 to 2019. Results: Male and female students were equally likely to present at the annual program symposium, but faculty (p = 0.001) and keynote (p = 0.012) presenters were more likely to be male. Compared with male counterparts, female students asked fewer seminar questions (p < 0.005) and female speakers received more questions (p = 0.03). Female students perceived less support and differed from men in reasons for asking or not asking seminar questions. Free text responses described repeated small acts of discrimination toward women with cumulative impact. Positive program changes followed presentation of findings to program leaders and students. Conclusions: The authors identified several aspects of one MD-PhD program that could discourage career or training persistence of female students. Increasing awareness of these issues was temporally related to positive programmatic changes.
Background: Female physician-scientists have led major advances in medicine broadly and particularly in women's health. Women remain underrepresented in dual MD-PhD degree programs that train many physician-scientists despite gender parity among medical and biomedical research students. Materials and Methods: To explore how the training environment might be experienced differently for male and female students in one MD-PhD program, the authors analyzed gender differences in annual symposium speakers with exact binomial tests, student participation as question-askers at a weekly seminar with logistic regression, and number of publications with quasi-Poisson generalized linear models. They compared male and female students' perceptions of gender-based discrimination using a survey, including qualitative analysis of free text responses. The program consisted of 71 total students in the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 academic years. Female students comprised 42.0% (81/191) of program matriculants from 1997 to 2019. Results: Male and female students were equally likely to present at the annual program symposium, but faculty (p = 0.001) and keynote (p = 0.012) presenters were more likely to be male. Compared with male counterparts, female students asked fewer seminar questions (p < 0.005) and female speakers received more questions (p = 0.03). Female students perceived less support and differed from men in reasons for asking or not asking seminar questions. Free text responses described repeated small acts of discrimination toward women with cumulative impact. Positive program changes followed presentation of findings to program leaders and students. Conclusions: The authors identified several aspects of one MD-PhD program that could discourage career or training persistence of female students. Increasing awareness of these issues was temporally related to positive programmatic changes.
Entities:
Keywords:
MD–PhD; equity; gender; graduate; program evaluation
Authors: Giovanni Filardo; Briget da Graca; Danielle M Sass; Benjamin D Pollock; Emma B Smith; Melissa Ashley-Marie Martinez Journal: BMJ Date: 2016-03-02