Women, Careers, and Academic Radiology '

Hedvig Hricak, MD, PhD

In the past decade, in the United States and in the Western

world, women have made advances toward equality with

men in the professions, business, and academia, includ-

ing academic medicine. However, it is difficult for women

to break through the "glass ceiling," and very few have achieved top administrative positions in any area of im-

portance.

In this issue of Academic Radiology, Vydareny et al

(1) report the results of a study on career advancement

of men and women in academic radiology that was per-

formed by the ad hoc Committee on Women of the Asso-

ciation of University Radiologists. This is the third article

in 10 years on this subject. The methods used in the study are well thought out, and the article addresses a number of

previously detected biases. Despite the differences in ap-

proach from the studies of Whitley et al (2) and Dial et al

(3), this study demonstrates that women have made major

strides toward achieving parity with men in many aspects

of an academic career. Although this trend is encouraging,

some inequalities still exist. The study, based on carefully

prepared questionnaires, used modern statistical methods

and ingenious approaches to ascertain that the groups are comparable. Some differences between the men and women

in their careers are not unique to academic radiology, how-

ever. These differences are evident in most areas of activity

where career advancement requires an immense invest-

ment of time and effort.

Generally at the expense of time, women are tradition-

ally devoted to home, children, and family. Often, painful choices have to be made and compromises reached. An

Acad Radiol 2000; 7:485-486

1 From the Department of Radiology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Cen- ter, 1275 York Ave, New York, NY 10021. Received March 8, 2000; accepted March 14. Address correspondence to the author.

©AUR, 2000

individual, man or woman, can do it all, but not "all" at

the same time. When the desire to have a family is very

strong, it is much more common for the woman to choose

to rear the children and be the homemaker. To divide one's

energies between career and home is neither a right nor a

wrong decision, and there should be no feeling of guilt

because success applies to either area of endeavor. The

question is, How can we better help those young academi-

cians with multiple tasks and divided loyalties? Our soci-

ety has yet to make adjustments and provide tangible en-

couragement to facilitate women's careers by creating an infrastructure with an affordable way to take care of the

children, including teenagers, while mothers are working.

These handicaps are understandably also reflected in

more women in academic radiology remaining in the

clinical series and not achieving tenure. It may be re-

flected in the finding that men spend more time at work

than women and that women spend more time at the asso-

ciate professor rank than men. The fact that proportionally

fewer professors are women is probably going to be rem-

edied with time, as trends since the article by Whitley et

al clearly demonstrate.

The number of women interested in radiology is rising

in comparison to the number of those interested in the en-

tire field of medical imaging. The choice of subspecialty

within radiology can be explained by the differences in pre-

dilection peculiar to sex. In the slightly more than 10 years

since the article by Whitley et al was published, the number

of women in radiology training programs has increased from 21% to close to 26% of the total (1,3). Because of the

"level playing field" in the selection process of residents in

radiology, some of the best women medical students are be-

ing attracted to our specialty. This raises the hope that even

more achievements by women will be forthcoming, cor-

recting inequalities due to prejudice and providing for

continuing advances and a bright future for radiology.

485

The absence of women in the very top administrative

positions, while regrettable, is not unique to academic ra-

diology. The "boys club" culture is still prevalent in most

aspects of career building. This culture has replaced the previously even more restrictive "blue blood" passport to

top positions, when only members of quasi-aristocratic families were eligible to lead, and will wane as it is al- ready starting to in big business and politics.

I E F E R E N C E . c

1. Vydareny KH, Waldrop SM, Jackson VP, et al. Career advancement of men and women in academic radiology: is the playing field level? Acad Radiol 2000; 7:493-501.

2. Whitley NO, Evens RG, Moody MA, et al. Advancement of women in academic radiology. Invest Radio11988; 22:431-436.

3. Dial TH, Bickel J. Lewicki AM. Sex differences in rank attainment among radiology and internal medicine faculty. Acad Med 1989; 64: 198-202.

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