A Qualitative Study of Faculty Members' Views of Women Chairs

Carol A. Isaac · Lindsay M. Griffin · Molly L Carnes

64 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Women s Health

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Diversity and Career in Medicine Innovations in Medical Education Gender Diversity and Inequality

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Concurrent with the evolving role of the department chair in academic medicine is the entry of women physicians into chair positions. Because implicit biases that stereotypically masculine behaviors are required for effective leadership remain strong, examining faculty members' perceptions of their chair's leadership in medical school departments with women chairs can provide insight into the views of women leaders in academic medicine and the complex ways in which gender may impact these chairs' leadership style and actions. METHODS: We conducted semistructured interviews with 13 male and 15 female faculty members representing all faculty tracks in three clinical departments chaired by women. Inductive, qualitative analysis of the subsequent text allowed themes to emerge across interviews. RESULTS: Four themes emerged regarding departmental leadership. One dealt with the leadership of the previous chair. The other three described the current chair's characteristics (tough, direct, and transparent), her use of communal actions to help support and mentor her faculty, and her ability to build power through consensus. Because all three chairs were early in their tenure, a wait and see attitude was frequently expressed. Faculty generally viewed having a woman chair as an indication of positive change, with potential individual and institutional advantages. CONCLUSIONS: This exploratory study suggests that the culture of academic medicine has moved beyond questioning women physicians' competence to lead once they are in top organizational leadership positions. The findings are also consonant with experimental research indicating that women leaders are most successful when they pair stereotypic male (agentic) behaviors with stereotypic female (communal) behaviors. All three chairs exhibited features of a transformational leadership style and characteristics deemed essential for effective leadership in academic medicine.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 64 citations exist upstream.

References

1998Basics of qualitative research : techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory 1998Qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five traditions.2005The SAGE handbook of qualitative research 1974The measurement of psychological androgyny.1991Becoming Qualitative Researchers: An Introduction 2002Role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders.2013Sex Differences in Social Behavior 1989Sex Differences in Social Behavior: A Social-Role Interpretation.

Cited by

2017Leadership research in healthcare: A realist review 2021The Role of Gender in Careers in Medicine: a Systematic Review and Thematic Synthesis of Qualitative Literature 2017Strategies for Identifying and Closing the Gender Salary Gap in Surgery 2014Gender Inequality in Career Advancement for Females in Japanese Academic Surgery 2011Women's Leadership in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics: Barriers to Participation.2015

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.