Women in academic psychiatry: politics and progress.

The progress of women in academic psychiatry depends in part on the social and institutionalized administrative patterns expressed through faculty attitudes, hiring practices, and other conditions of the field as they are currently structured. As the numbers of women increase, their specialness will decrease, and accommodations to particular needs and variations may become accepted as part of the system. This success in modifying the system will be self-perpetuating, proportional, and appropriate, leading to more participation of women in academic psychiatry.