Survey: About 20% of women in academic oncology considering a change of career setting
Although most academic and nonacademic female oncologists reported they would choose the same career path again, about 20% of those in academia said they were likely to soon pursue a career outside that setting, according to a survey.
Moreover, the survey results, published in JAMA Network Open, showed a similar proportion of women from both groups believed that their sex adversely impacts job promotion and most believed that their male colleagues were more likely to be promoted.
Although women have surpassed men in enrollment in U.S. medical schools, women still only represent 35.9% of academic oncology faculty, including 37.1% specializing in hematology/oncology, 30.7% in radiation oncology and 38.8% in surgical oncology.
“Inequality in gender representation within academic oncology is pronounced. Yet, there is a paucity of data regarding the motivations of female physicians and scientists to build a career in academic oncology,” Emily C. Merfeld, MD, radiation oncologist resident at University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, and colleagues wrote.
To identify the key factors associated with women oncologists’ decision to pursue academic or nonacademic oncology and associated perceptions about such careers, Merfeld and colleagues designed a cross-sectional survey.
A total of 667 women oncologists completed the survey, of whom 422 (63.2%) identified as academic oncologists and 245 (36.8%) identified as nonacademic oncologists. Women also reported whether they were married or had a partner (84%) — with 65.9% of those partners working full-time — and whether they had children (74.6%) either before or during medical school (12.2%), during residency or fellowship (47.6%) or after training (40.2%).
Around a quarter of respondents reported that their spouse or partner (23.5%) and family (26.4%) had extremely or moderately affected their decision to pursue academic practice.
Academic oncologists also reported that the biggest sacrifice in pursuing an academic practice was time with loved ones (42.9%), followed by money (20.1%) and pressure for academic promotion (18%).
Nonacademic oncologists perceived the biggest sacrifice related to pursuing an academic practice would be pressure for academic promotion (41.6%), followed by time with loved ones (22.4%).
“This study found that, contrary to popular assumptions, a spouse or partner and/or family were not a major factor in female oncologists favoring nonacademic careers, because this factor was similarly important to both academic and nonacademic oncologists,” the researchers wrote.
Regarding professional belonging and fulfillment, respondents in the academic group had significantly different perceptions than nonacademic oncologists on how their sex affected their ability to obtain a chosen job.
Specifically, a larger proportion of nonacademic oncologists believed that their sex had a positive or somewhat positive impact compared with academic oncologists (41.2% vs. 27.6%; P = .001) and more academic oncologists reported rarely or never feeling a sense of belonging in their work environment (7.9% vs. 2%; P < .001).
However, a similar proportion of academic oncologists believed that their sex had a somewhat negative impact (23.8% vs. 21.2%), and more than half of both academic (54.6%) and nonacademic oncologists (50.6%) reported that they believed they were less likely than male colleagues to be promoted.
Most academic (71.3%) and nonacademic oncologists (68.6%) reported they would choose the same career path again. However, 21.9% of academic oncologists reported that they were likely or very likely to pursue a career outside the academic setting within the next 5 years, 28.2% of whom said they were likely or very likely to leave academic for industry employment and 25% for community clinical practice.
“The reality that few female oncologists hold leadership roles propagates the problem of underrepresentation by reducing mentorship and sponsorship opportunities for young women in academic oncology,” Merfeld and colleagues wrote. “Academic oncology is at high risk for continued gender inequality if its culture is not addressed.”
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