« Back to Search
Changing Demographics of Faculty in Academic Obstetrics and Gynecology, 1972-2011
Poster
William F. Rayburn, MD
Christine Q. Liu, Rebecca G. Rogers
Objective: To examine the 40-year (1972 – 2011) changes in faculty diversity in academic obstetrics and gynecology (ob-gyn). Specifically, we sought to investigate how gender and race compositions of new and continuing faculty have changed during this period.
Methods: The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Faculty Roster is the national database containing demographic backgrounds of individual U.S. allopathic medical school faculty. We used this whole population roster to compare new with continuing full-time faculty in ob-gyn every year by gender and race using a snapshot on December 31 from 1972 to 2011. Newly-appointed faculty were either new to academic medicine or newly promoted in that calendar year, while continuing faculty included all other individuals.
Results: The total number of ob-gyn faculty increased from 925 in 1972 to 4160 in 2011. The proportions who were women increased from 8.0% to 41.6% and who were non-white from 12.6% to 24.3%. Newly appointed ob-gyn faculty were more diverse than continuing faculty. Despite an increasing number of newly appointed women being above the assistant professor rank, this number remained less than for men. Faculty of Asian, African American, Native American/Alaskan, Pacific Islander, and Hispanic decent also comprised greater proportions of faculty in recent years. The relation between diversity and increasing rank was not as strong for underrepresented faculty as for women faculty. Compared with those in family medicine, internal medicine, and general surgery during this period, ob-gyn faculty had higher proportions of women and were more racially diverse.
Conclusion: Diversity of ob-gyn faculty in gender and race increased significantly over the past four decades, with newly appointed faculty generally being more diverse than continuing faculty. Results from this national study have education policy implications and permits diversity comparisons between ob-gyn departments, residents, and graduates in the community.
Topics:
Professionalism, Systems-Based Practice & Improvement, CME,