Peering Through the Glass Ceiling: Assessing Barriers and Facilitators to Academic Advancement for Women in ID

IDSA is dedicated to supporting inclusion, diversity, access & equity within our society and the specialty of infectious diseases. There is a growing body of literature demonstrating an achievement gap between male and female faculty in academic medicine, and academic infectious diseases is no exception.  A study presented at IDWeek2018 and published in Clinical Infectious Diseases in 2019 described gender disparities in academic advancement within infectious diseases, but the causes and drivers of this gap remain poorly understood. A group of IDSA members is partnering with IDSA’s Inclusion, Diversity, Access & Equity Task Force to conduct a study to characterize the barriers to advancement for women in academic infectious diseases. 

Who are the investigators?

• Jennifer Manne-Goehler MD, MSc; Infectious Diseases Fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital
• Jasmine Marcelin MD, FIDSA Infectious Diseases Physician at University of Nebraska Medical Center, and IDSA IDA&E Taskforce member
• Douglas Krakower MD, Infectious Diseases Physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
• Arghavan Salles MD, PhD, Scholar in Residence, Stanford University School of Medicine
• Carlos Del Rio MD, FIDSA Infectious Diseases Physician at Emory University School of Medicine
• Wendy Stead MD, Infectious Diseases Physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

The study will be conducted in two parts – a survey of infectious diseases professionals to be released electronically through email and social media in the next several weeks, and a series of focus group interviews to be conducted onsite at IDWeek2019. In this mixed-methods study, we hope to explore gender differences in academic promotion, and identify the most critical barriers and facilitators to academic advancement for women in our field.

We are interested in survey responses from men and women in academic infectious diseases, including physicians and pharmacists. We welcome participants from various stages in academic advancement, and those from underrepresented groups in our specialty. The four focus groups will consist of women ID physicians at the instructor/assistant professor, associate professor, and full professor level, and one group of men ID physicians at the full professor level. The results we find from this work will be used as a foundation for developing an action plan for IDSA to better address disparities in achievement. 

Please consider joining us at IDWeek for the focus group – the invitation can be found here. Soon, you may receive notifications to take the survey, and you will see the survey being shared on social media, so please distribute to your colleagues. For more information, contact Dr. Wendy Stead at wstead@bidmc.harvard.edu.