Preferential Promotion of White Men Persisting in Academic Medicine

TUESDAY, Dec. 3, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Preferential promotion of White men within academic medicine is persisting, with racially and ethnically diverse women experiencing greater underpromotion, according to a study published online Nov. 27 in JAMA Network Open.

Lauren Clark, from the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Kansas City, and colleagues examined whether race and ethnicity and gender are associated with appointment to or promotion within academic medicine in a cohort study. The analytic sample included 673,573 graduates from U.S. M.D.-granting medical schools.

The researchers found that compared with White men, Asian men, Asian women, Black women, and White women were more likely to be appointed to entry-level positions. Compared with physicians of nearly every other combination of gender and race and ethnicity, White men were more likely to be promoted to upper ranks among physicians graduating before and after 2000. Compared with White men, Black women were less likely to be promoted to associate professor and full professor among physicians graduating prior to 2000 (hazard ratios, 0.45 and 0.59, respectively). Conversely, compared with White men, Black men were more likely to be appointed department chair (hazard ratio, 1.29).

“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 authors write.

Abstract/Full Text

Editorial