Women have been entering academic medicine at nearly the same rate as men for decades, but very few women reach the top levels of leadership. For example, as of April 2022, of the 71 U.S. cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute, only seven are directed by women. In 2018, women accounted for 16% of medical school deans, 18% of department chairs and 25% of full professors. To this day, women are still less likely than men to become associate or full professors of medicine or to be appointed as chairs of university medical departments – and there has been no narrowing of this gender gap over time.
I am a cancer researcher, physician and surgeon, and I also study gender inequity within medicine. In my most recent research, I interviewed more than 100 people in medicine to better understand why women struggle to advance in academic medicine. From this work, one important reason seems to be that women are consistently excluded from important, male-dominated networking activities, especially golf.
Men mentioned watching or playing sports as a common networking activity in which women didn’t frequently participate.
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Exclusion from networking blocks women’s advancement
Networking is essential to success in many professional fields. Networking leads to success in many ways. When colleagues befriend one another, they can promote one another’s careers and exchange information about opportunities. Networking also allows junior people to meet powerful senior colleagues who may take them under their wings and become invested in their success.
The effects of these social connections can be very tangible. Research in the sales field has shown that women who networked through golf made more sales of significantly higher value than women who did not play golf.
In my recent study, I wanted to see what kinds of activities are important for networking in research-focused medical institutions – and whether women were excluded.
To do this, I conducted interviews with 52 female and 52 male faculty members at 16 university medical centers across the U.S. in 2019. The people I spoke with had similar levels of education and years of professional experience, and similar career goals and ambitions for advancement and leadership. I asked each interviewee questions such as “How do people come to occupy leadership positions at your institution?” and “How has your gender played a role in your experiences in academic medicine?”
Both men and women mentioned “networking” and specifically “the boys club” – which excludes women – as important factors in career advancement.
Nearly all interviewees – 51 of the 52 men and 50 of the 52 women – saw networking as critical for career advancement. Despite the fact that interview questions never used the term “boys club,” 73% of the women and 42% of the men brought up this concept on their own in the…
