Gender and Academic Medicine: A Good Pipeline of Women Graduates Is Not Advancing

Abstract

Background: Women are underrepresented in the higher levels of appointment in academic medicine, despite the so-called feminization of medicine. Purpose: A 27-year (1979–2006) retrospective study was conducted regarding the success and advancement of women and men at the University of Split School of Medicine in Croatia. Methods: Data were collected from the school's archive, including number of women and men among applicants, enrollees, graduates, teachers, department chairs and the school management: high school grade averages and admission tests scores by applicant gender and gender-based graduation grade averages. The number and gender patterns of all employed and unemployed physicians in the Split-Dalmatia county were also collected. Results: Men represent the minority among applicants, enrollees, and graduates, whereas women were in the minority among faculty, department chairs, and the school management across all 27 years. Graduation grades from high school and medical school showed that women were statistically better students, although the difference was slight. In the same geographic area, women are more often unemployed and less likely to specialize. Conclusions: More women are applying, enrolling and graduating from the University of Split School of Medicine. Women also perform statistically better on entrance exam and have better graduation grades, yet they remain a minority in faculty and leadership positions. A review of county-wise employment statistics revealed that women were more frequently unemployed and less likely to specialize in this study.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Dijana Buljubasic, Josip Baric, and Boris Matutinovic for their help with the archives. We are also grateful to Ivica Radosevic of Central Unemployment Service for providing physicians' unemployment data and to Dr. Mario Troselj of Croatian Institute for Public Health for providing data on employed physicians from the Registry of health care workers.