PC1001: Academic Success of Women Faculty in a Canadian Department of Pediatrics

Background: The University of Alberta has one of the largest departments of academic pediatrics in Canada. Annually, all academic faculty members are assessed on their self-reported academic performance and subsequently assigned a merit value between 0 and 3 based on their work in research, teaching and administrative/leadership domains. The average merit value at the university is 1.12; merit values ⥸1.75 are for superior academic performance often in more than one domain. In addition to a financial bonus, merit is also one indicator of academic success and suggests tenure and promotion readiness. Recognizing that gender differences exist in academic medicine, we reviewed the academic success of women faculty in our Department of Pediatrics.

Methods: The number and proportion of men and women in the Department of Pediatrics at the different academic ranks (Assistant, Associate and Full Professor) who were assessed by the Faculty Evaluation Committee (FEC) were reviewed over a 5-year period (2017-2021) as well as two main examples of their academic success: merit and promotion outcomes.

Results: While the number of faculty assessed at FEC was stable, the proportion of women increased from 51.4 % in 2017 to 60 % in 2021 (Table 1). During this period, only 5 women Assistant Professors were eligible (and successful) for tenure and promotion compared to 13 Assistant Professors who were men. Conversely, more women Associate Professors (n=12) were promoted to Full Professor compared to men (n=3). However, more women Associate Professors remained at that rank for a longer duration than their male counterparts. The most common merit values were 1.0 and 1.25. Over time, the proportion of men receiving a 1.0 merit decreased in favour of a higher merit. While the proportion of men and women faculty receiving a 1.25 merit increased over time, it was less so for women. Superior merit values (⥸1.75) were rare for women faculty (Table 2).

Conclusion: Recruitment and retention of women faculty has been successful, particularly for Assistant Professors, such that we have more women academic faculty than men. Women were also successful with academic promotion, with more women than men at the rank of Full Professor in 2021, however, further analysis is needed to determine why they take longer to achieve this rank. Over time, more men received higher merit values, in particular for superior merit, suggesting that the academic work of some men may be valued more than that for some women faculty. Further analysis is needed to determine if this merit difference is related to job description (research vs teaching time), and/or self-reporting differences between men and women.