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Mind the gap: Expediting gender parity in MD-PhD admissions
Temperance R. Rowell, … , Donna S. Neuberg, Loren D. Walensky
Temperance R. Rowell, … , Donna S. Neuberg, Loren D. Walensky
Published February 27, 2020
Citation Information: JCI Insight. 2020;5(4):e136037. https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.136037.
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Perspective

Mind the gap: Expediting gender parity in MD-PhD admissions

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Abstract

The 2018 National MD-PhD Program Outcomes Study highlighted the critical need to increase MD-PhD trainee diversity and close the gender gap in MD-PhD enrollment. This Association of American Medical Colleges imperative prompted us to evaluate trends in female matriculation from our institutional MD-PhD program compared with national data. Based on a 10-year review of Harvard/MIT Medical Scientist Training Program admissions, we observed a sharp and sustained increase in female matriculants for the past 5 years that is well above the national average. We report our experience with achieving gender parity among matriculants of our MD-PhD program, identify the specific stage of the admissions process where the gender balance acutely shifted, and attribute the increase in female matriculation to concrete administrative changes that were put into place just prior to the observed gender balance shift. These changes included increasing the number of faculty participants in application screening and awardee selection and establishing gender balance among faculty decision makers. We believe that adopting basic administrative practices geared toward increasing the diversity of perspectives among admissions faculty has the potential to expedite gender parity of MD-PhD matriculants nationwide and could eventually help achieve gender balance in the national physician-scientist workforce.

Authors

Temperance R. Rowell, Robert A. Redd, Donna S. Neuberg, Loren D. Walensky

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Figure 1

Percentage of female matriculants at Harvard/MIT outpaces national trend.

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Percentage of female matriculants at Harvard/MIT outpaces national trend...
(A) The national average for percentage of female MD-PhD matriculants from AY2010–2011 to AY2018–2019 (current AY not available) based on data from the AAMC was plotted (Actual, black circles connected by solid line). A 3-year rolling mean (Smooth) was applied for the 9-year data set to match the handling of the Harvard/MIT program data. The smoothed data were plotted (white circles) and fit using a linear regression to calculate a corresponding slope for comparison (dashed black line). (B) The percentage of female matriculants at the Harvard/MIT MSTP was plotted from AY2010–2011 to AY2019–2020 (Actual, crimson circles connected by solid line). A 3-year rolling mean was applied to the 10-year data set to smooth the yearly variation. The smoothed data were plotted (white circles) and fit using a linear regression to calculate the slope (dashed crimson line) for comparison to the national data. n = 609–672 matriculants (both genders) per AY nationally and n = 11–15 matriculants (both genders) per AY to the Harvard/MIT MSTP.

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