IDWeek Focus Groups Will Help Assess Barriers and Facilitators to Academic Advancement for Women in ID

In the last year, a study presented at IDWeek 2018 and subsequently published in Clinical Infectious Diseases describing gender disparities in academic advancement within the field of infectious diseases joined a growing body of literature demonstrating an achievement gap between male and female faculty in academic medicine. The causes and drivers of this gap, however, remain poorly understood. 

Committed to supporting inclusion, diversity, access and equity within our society and across the infectious diseases specialty, IDSA is working with members on a study seeking to identify advancement barriers or women in academic infectious diseases areas. With 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 via focus groups and a survey. If you would like to participate in a focus group being held during IDWeek 2019, click this link.

The survey will incorporate input from the focus groups during IDWeek, and is open to all ID professionals, including (but not limited to) men and women, physicians and pharmacists, at all levels of academic development. We encourage you to complete the survey and share with others. If you see the campaign on social media, please share it so that we can increase our response. For more information, contact Dr. Wendy Stead at wstead@bidmc.harvard.edu or Dr. Jennifer Manne-Goehler at jmanne@post.harvard.edu.