LAUSR

Gender equality in the academic realm remains an elusive but crucial goal for women in medicine today. Although the number of women in all ranks of academic medicine is growing because of an increase in the number of women entering medicine as a profession, women in academic medicine are still progressing more slowly than their male counterparts in attaining senior academic positions and are paid less for the same work product. Despite the fact that >50% of medical students today are female, their career development, leadership, and earning potential in academic medicine continues to lag behind their male counterparts. Only 10% of women in academic medicine held the rank of full professor in 1985, and that number has only increased by 10% over the past 30 years—reaching 20% in 2015. During this same time period, the percentage of men holding the rank of full professor has remained steadily around 30%. In academic medicine, academic rank is vitally important because it is the primary factor for recruiting and selecting department chairs. Very few medical schools have reached this critical mass of female leaders, and the pool of women in senior positions to draw from remains small. In addition, women earn 7% to 24% less than their male counterparts, when other variables are controlled. Given the innate differences between the genders (men seen as strong, women seen as nurturing, etc.), societal gender expectations, and gender biases, a career in academic medicine can be very difficult to navigate as a woman. However, the mentorship of an experienced teacher/ guide has been shown to facilitate career development. Mentoring improves