Gender disparities in academic rank achievement in neurosurgery: a critical assessment

OBJECTIVEThe objective of this study was to evaluate whether there are disparities in academic rank and promotion between men and women neurosurgeons.METHODSThe profiles of faculty members from 50 academic neurosurgery programs were reviewed to identify years in practice, number of PubMed-indexed publications, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) attainment, and academic rank. The number of publications at each academic rank was compared between men and women after controlling for years in practice by using a negative binomial regression model. The relationship between gender and each academic rank was also determined after controlling for clustering at the institutional level, years in practice, and number of publications.RESULTSOf 841 faculty members identified, 761 (90%) were men (p = 0.0001). Women represented 12% of the assistant and associate professors but only 4% of the full professors. Men and women did not differ in terms of the percentage holding a PhD, years in practice, or number of publications at any academic rank. After controlling for years in practice and clustering at the facility level, the authors found that men were twice as likely as women to be named full professor (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.09–4.44, p = 0.03). However, when institution, years in practice, PhD attainment, h-index, and number of publications were considered, men and women were equally likely to attain full professorship (OR 0.9, 95% CI 0.42–1.93).CONCLUSIONSData analysis of the top neurosurgery programs suggests that although there are fewer women than men holding positions in academic neurosurgery, faculty rank attainment does not seem to be influenced by gender.

587. Equity in academic advancement: findings from an IDSA-sponsored survey of infectious disease physicians

Background Recent evidence has shown substantial disparities in the rate of advancement to full professorship among women as compared to men faculty in academic infectious diseases (ID). We sought to identify barriers to academic advancement overall and by gender among faculty physicians in this field. Methods We conducted a web-based survey of academic faculty in ID. The survey was made available to the IDWeek2019 attendees and digitally via email and social media to the IDSA membership at large from 9/18/19 – 11/8/2019. The survey assessed demographic characteristics and barriers to faculty advancement and achievement, building on prior research. Survey themes included faculty promotion track, part-time work history and a suite of questions about workplace atmosphere and policies related to career advancement. Multivariable Poisson regression models were used to evaluate the association between these factors and full professorship. Results Of 1,036 respondents, 790 were retained in the final dataset [Men: 322 (40.7%), Women: 458 (58.0%), Other: 10 (1.3%)]. 352 respondents were Instructors or Assistant Professors (38.5%), 198 were Associate Professors (25.1%) and 240 were Full Professors (30.4%). Fewer women reported that their promotion process was transparent (57.4% v. 67.6%, p=0.004) and more women Full Professors felt they had been “sponsored” compared to men at their same rank (73.3% v. 53.6%, p=0.002). In regression analyses (Table 1), gender, publications and clinical trial leadership were significantly associated with full professor rank and promotion transparency and NIH grants emerged as possible correlates of this outcome. Salary support, part-time work, women in leadership, faculty promotion track and sponsorship were not associated with this outcome. Table 1. Results of Poisson regression analysis Conclusion Sponsorship and transparency of promotion criteria differed by gender and emerged as potentially important factors associated with full professorship in academic ID. Future policies to promote equity in advancement should address these issues. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures

The Long “Race” to Diversity in Otolaryngology

The number of health disparities disproportionately affecting minority communities continue to rise. Thus, it is imperative to assess whether equity within medical school enrollment and along the academic pipeline has mirrored this growth, especially among elite surgical specialties such as otolaryngology. Census and educational data from 2010 and 2018 were used to assess the current otolaryngology, surgery, and internal medicine physician and faculty workforce diversity across each stage of the academic medicine trajectory by race and ethnicity. We found that disparities exist in medical school enrollment for minority students such that Hispanic/Latinx representation was only 30% and Black representation only 50% of their respective proportions in the US population in 2018. Disparities in achieving full professorship were also observed across all 3 specialties but most prominently in otolaryngology, with 1% Black representation among otolaryngology professors in 2018. A collective strategy toward diversifying the otolaryngology workforce should be explored.

UCLA

Joanne’s rapid rise in the profession led to an offer of a full professorship of meteorology at UCLA in 1960, but emotional turmoil left her life in shambles and resulted in her leaving the university after only three years.

Reflections on growing leadership capacity through formal training and mid-career peer connections

In this commentary, two alumni of the 2018 Society of Behavioral Medicine Mid-Career Leadership Institute reflect on their experiences in the year-long program. Each was at different stages of their career and went into the program for different reasons. One was seeking purpose and direction after being promoted to Associate Professor. The other had been awarded full professorship and was contemplating a career move into administration. Assigned to the same learning community within the institute, they stayed in touch through monthly peer-mentoring calls over the course of the year. These calls both reinforced what they learned during the leadership institute and provided a forum for brainstorming how to maximize their career opportunities and traverse their distinct career challenges. Both have since gone through significant career changes, thanks to the validation, inspiration, and support provided by the leadership institute. Both continue to reap the benefits from participating in the leadership institute as they navigate the new and exciting landscape of their changing careers.

Katherine Jackson French

A native of London, Kentucky, Dr. Katherine Jackson French (Ph.D. Columbia University, 1906) collected over sixty British Isle ballads in the hills of Kentucky in 1909 and attempted to publish them in 1910 with the help of Berea College, an endeavor that never came to pass due to an intriguing tangle of motives, gender biases, wavering support from her hoped-for patron, and ruthlessness on the part of fellow collectors. (Her ballad collection, “English-Scottish Ballads from the Hills of Kentucky,” sees publication here at last and comprises the last section of the book.) An unwitting participant in the Ballad Wars of the early 20th Century, French went on to a full professorship at Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana, where she was also the co-founder of the Woman’s Department Club and President of the UUAW. This book sets the story of Jackson’s life against the backdrop of the social upheaval of the early 20th century, highlights Jackson’s focus on women as ballad keepers, discusses the long-lasting Anglo-only depiction of Appalachia, and reimagines what effect publication of her collection in 1910 (seven years before Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil Sharp’s landmark English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians) might have had upon our first and lasting view of Appalachian balladry.

Temporality in Academic Evaluation

This paper builds on emerging concerns with how temporality and spatiality unfold in, and order, academic evaluation practices. We unpack how the notion of ‘trajectory’ – a simultaneously prospective and retrospective narrative device permeating contemporary academic evaluation discourses – is mobilized within a particular evaluation site. Materials for our study are drawn from reports commissioned by Swedish universities when hiring for new professors. These texts are authored by external referees who rank and compare candidates, in this case for associate and full professorship positions in biomedicine. By using the theoretical perspective of ‘narrative infrastructures’ we explore how the referee reports mobilize ‘trajectories’ to weave together disparate bits of evidence extracted from the bylines of biomedical researchers’ CVs: publication numbers, impact factors, authorship positions and ‘earning power’. Our analysis finds certain resemblances across reports of what constitutes an ideal candidate’s career trajectory, but none of these are completely identical. We consider how ‘the trajectory’ is evoked as a singularity within this genre of writing, thereby bestowing retrospectively a sense of coherence and purpose on the past performance and prospective development of careers. We discuss the implications of our findings in terms of how ‘trajectorism’ shapes evaluation in academic biomedicine and possibly beyond, and propose suggestions for how this dominant narrative might be challenged.

Wpływ podróży na dynamikę życia wybranych uczniów Ksawerego Liskego

The author of the article analyses the questions of the influence of travelling on the dynamics of life of selected students of Ksawery Liski, i.e. Bronisław Gorczak (1854–1918) and Wiktor Czermak (1863–1913). The former, after graduating from his studies in Lviv, at the beginning of 1870s, he became an archivist, and subsequently also a librarian, in Sławuta in Volhynia, for the prince Roman Damian Sanguszko. The latter, after defending at the Jagiellonian University his Ph. D. thesis written in Lviv, could take part in search queries in archives in Rome, Berlin, Vienna, with time obtaining full professorship. The author concludes that at the turn of the 19th and 20th century, scientific travels were an important factor in the research development of the past and Lviv remained a constant point of reference for Liski’s alumni.