Gender Equity Task Force Report

The School of Medicine Gender Equity Task Force reported its findings and recommendations to the School of Medicine Executive Committee on Tuesday Oct. 20. 

The task force focused on ways to increase the number of women in leadership roles at the School and to improve recognition of their work with professional awards and honors. 

The recommendations of the task force call for increased support for associate professors, revised promotion criteria, identifying and sharing best practices, and tracking award nominations and increasing the number of women recommended for awards.

 Dean John J. Reilly, Jr., appointed the task force earlier this year after the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) issued a call to address gender inequities in academic medicine. 

The task force reported that the School of Medicine can build on successes that have been achieved during Dean Reilly’s tenure. 

The report notes that during Dean Reilly’s leadership, the number of women in leadership of departments has increased. 

Nine of the 23 departments of the School of Medicine, or 39 percent, are chaired by women, compared with the 2019 national average of 19 percent of women department chairs at U.S. medical schools.  The task force report also shows that 32 percent of full professors at the School of Medicine are women. According to the AAMC, 25.7 percent of full professors at U.S. medical schools are female. 

In addition, the School has also taken steps to ensure pay equity and the University has added a new benefit to assist with increased child care needs related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Dean’s Office also has provided support of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Award, which provides supplemental, flexible funds to support the research of early-career physician-scientists working on clinical research projects while facing extraprofessional demands of caregiving. 

Judy Regensteiner, PhD, director of the Center for Women’s Health Research and professor of medicine, and Angie Ribera, PhD, chair of physiology and biophysics, led the School of Medicine Gender Equity Task Force.