{"id":3887,"date":"2022-04-03T16:34:17","date_gmt":"2022-04-03T16:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linksus.net\/women-in-research-solutions-to-the-pandemics-disproportionate-impact-medical-news-today\/"},"modified":"2022-04-03T16:34:17","modified_gmt":"2022-04-03T16:34:17","slug":"women-in-research-solutions-to-the-pandemics-disproportionate-impact-medical-news-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/2022\/04\/03\/women-in-research-solutions-to-the-pandemics-disproportionate-impact-medical-news-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Women in research: Solutions to the pandemic's disproportionate impact – Medical News Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many studies have shown a disparity between men and women working in healthcare. Not only are there gaps in salary and leadership positions<\/a><\/hl-trusted-source>, but female physicians in academic medical centers are also less likely<\/a> to receive professorship or department chair promotions.
Since the start of the COVID-19<\/a> pandemic in early 2020, research has shown that this situation has worsened.
Women have reportedly lost more than 5.4 million<\/a> jobs in the United States, accounting for 55% of all jobs lost since the start of the pandemic. Of those jobs, more than 1.5 million<\/a> were in healthcare.<\/strong>
Now, an expert opinion paper, which researchers from seven medical research and academic institutions have written, warns that female researchers in academic medicine have been falling behind with being published and receiving grant funding during the pandemic. The authors argue that this puts women at risk of completely dropping out from the research workforce unless institutes, foundations, and funders take certain actions.
The results from this commentary appear in the journal Nature Medicine<\/em><\/a><\/hl-trusted-source>.
According to lead author Dr. Pamela B. Davis, Ph.D.<\/a>, professor at the Center for Community Health Integration at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, the aim of this paper was to support the clinical research<\/a><\/hl-trusted-source> workforce, which was stretched thin during the pandemic.
Dr. Davis and her team collected information from other studies about the effects of pandemic stresses on caregivers<\/a> conducting research in academic medicine.
\u201cWe were concerned because the burdens of caregiving, especially for young children, but also for dependent elderly relatives, fell disproportionately on women, and women who are engaged in a research career are pulled away from their work to render care that formerly was done by the schools, day care, babysitters, or home health aides,\u201d Dr. Davis told Medical News Today<\/em>.<\/strong>
\u201cThis is damaging to the clinical research enterprise, just as there is increasing public understanding of the importance of clinical research in bringing treatments and vaccines to patients,\u201d she said.
This issue rings true for Jennifer Bramen<\/a>, Ph.D., senior research scientist at the Pacific Neuroscience Institute at Providence Saint John\u2019s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, who spoke with MNT <\/em>about the paper.
Dr. Bramen said that reviewing the commentary made her think about her own experience when in graduate school. She said that she and many other women in her program either made career decisions around their desire for children or made family plans around their passion for their academic career.
\u201cI elected not to have children for fear of becoming a trailing spouse after investing 10 years into my secondary education,\u201d Dr. Bramen recalled.
\u201cIn my experience, male students did not face these considerations. I know a lot of women who left academia for careers that were kinder to women with family obligations. I do also know many women who have succeeded in having both children and an incredibly successful academic career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Dr. Jennifer Bramen
Providing benefits that help women with children, such as tax-exempt accounts to support child care, is one of the recommendations Dr. Davis and her team list as ways in which institutions can help reduce the number of women leaving academia.
The study authors suggest that institutions consider providing short-term, flexible research support for junior faculty<\/a><\/hl-trusted-source> with caregiving responsibilities. They are asking foundations and funders to help by advocating for the value that both child care and the care of older adults offer to society.
The authors also recommend certain operational changes, including a flexible work schedule and the availability of high quality mentorship and sponsorship programs for all junior faculty. One actionable suggestion, in particular, proposes that institutions pause the promotion timeline when necessary.
\u201cI believe that the ability to request a pause (to) the promotion timeline for maternity leave and creating a culture open to accepting maternity leave as a reasonable explanation during reduced productivity periods would be helpful to women with children long after the pandemic,\u201d Dr. Bramen said.
The authors also recommend cultural changes, such as sharing the responsibility of establishing gender equity and engaging Boards of Trustees.
For such transformative changes, Dr. Davis said that leadership is key and that institutional leaders \u2014 including board members, deans, and chairs \u2014 should incorporate this message into their communications and their decisions regarding invited speakers. Funders should advocate, celebrate, and publicize programs that address gender equity.
\u201cGender equity accelerates research excellence; we need multiple perspectives and all the brainpower to maximize research productivity and quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Dr. Pamela B. Davis
\u201cThe sort of cultural change that we need to drive excellence in the research enterprise needs to be infused throughout the system. There is no more rapid impetus for cultural changes than to have it adopted by those who provide the funding,\u201d Dr. Davis said.
Dr. Bramen agreed:
\u201cIf institutions want to support gender equity, they need to provide financial support or make monetary investments. [O]therwise, institutional support for gender equality is a lot of pretty words and will not effect real change.\u201d<\/strong>
In this Special Feature, we look at the ways in which the new coronavirus pandemic is impacting the mental health and well-being of family caregivers.<\/a>
Gender bias affects every part of the healthcare system, from diagnosis to health outcomes. Learn more about gender bias in healthcare and how to stop\u2026<\/a>
The psychological effects of gender inequality include low self-esteem, negative body image, exposure to chronic stress, and trauma.<\/a>
Gender discrimination harms mental and physical health in a wide range of direct and indirect ways. Learn more and find resources here.<\/a>
Caring for someone with dementia can be challenging, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, we provide some helpful tips.<\/a>
OUR BRANDS<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many studies have shown a disparity between men and women working in healthcare. Not only are there gaps in salary and leadership positions, but female physicians in academic medical centers are also less likely to receive professorship or department chair promotions.Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, research has shown that this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":869,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3887"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/869"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}