Faculty perceptions of gender discrimination and sexual harassment in academic medicine

Background: Gender-based discrimination and sexual harassment are common in medical practice and may be even more prevalent in academic medicine. Objective: To examine the prevalence of gender-based discrimination and sex ual harassment among medical school faculty and the associations of gender- based discrimination with number of publications, career satisfaction, and perceptions of career advancement. Design: A self-administered mailed questionnaire of U.S. medical school fac ulty that covered a broad range of topics relating to academic life. Settin g: 24 randomly selected medical schools in the contiguous United States. Participants: A random sample of 3332 full-time faculty, stratified by spec ialty, graduation cohort, and sex. Measurements: Prevalence of self-reported experiences of discrimination and harassment, number of peer-reviewed publications, career satisfaction, and perception of career advancement. Results: Female faculty were more than 2.5 times more likely than male facu lty to perceive gender-based discrimination in the academic environment (P < 0.001). Among women, rates of reported discrimination ranged from 47% for the youngest faculty to 70% for the oldest faculty. Women who reported exp eriencing negative gender bias had similar productivity but lower career sa tisfaction scores than did other women (P ( 0.001). About half of female fa culty but few male faculty experienced some form of sexual harassment. Thes e experiences were similarly prevalent across the institutions in the sampl e and in all regions of the United States. Female faculty who reported bein g sexually harassed perceived gender-specific bias in the academic environm ent more often than did other women (80% compared with 61%) and more often reported experiencing gender bias in professional advancement (72% compared with 47%). Publications, career satisfaction, and professional confidence were not affected by sexual harassment, and self-assessed career advancemen t was only marginally lower for female faculty who had experienced sexual h arassment (P = 0.06). Conclusion: Despite substantial increases in the number of female faculty, reports of gender-based discrimination and sexual harassment remain common.