Study Highlights the Preferential Promotion of White Men in Academic Medicine

Despite recent trends in the increase of women physicians and doctors from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups receiving entry-level appointments at medical schools, White men in academic medicine are significantly more likely to receive a promotion than doctors from other racial or gender groups, according to a new study led by the University of Kansas School of Medicine.

The authors drew from data from the Association of American Medical Colleges for all medical degree-granting schools from 1979 to 2019, cross-referenced with the association’s information on faculty appointments at medical schools since 2000.

After analyzing a sample of more than 673,000 medical school graduates, the authors found that Asian men, Asian women, Black women, and White women were more likely than White men to be appointed to an entry-level role in academic medicine. Yet, among doctors who graduated both before and after 2000, White men were more likely to be promoted to upper-level faculty ranks than their women peers from nearly all major racial groups.

Prior to 2000, Black women were 55 percent less likely, Hispanic women were 44 percent less likely, White women were 23 percent less likely, and Asian women were 21 percent less likely than White men to receive a promotion to associate professor. White men were also more likely than Black, Hispanic, and White women to receive promotions to full professor, and more likely than all women to be promoted to department chair.

“Racial and ethnic minority women experienced a twofold challenge of underpromotion compared with their male counterparts and White men,” write the authors. “These associations have not changed in recent years, and prior studies suggest that these differences persist even when adjusting for productivity, such as publications and grants. To achieve a workforce that reflects the diversity of the U.S. population, academic medicine must transform its culture and the practices that surround faculty appointments and promotions.”

The research team also included scholars from the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri.