BMJ  2004;328:46 (3 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7430.46-a

Letter

Academic medicine: time for reinvention

Academic medicine is failing women

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—The question "Why is academic medicine failing?" could be rephrased "Why is academic medicine failing women?"¹ One reason is the recruitment and retention of senior female academics, and the other is the application of gender issues to medical research.

The failure of academic medicine to come to terms with clinical workforce interests and population healthcare issues is exemplified by the role and aspirations of female students, potential female clinical scientists, and women as patients. Recognition of the high quality skills of female science students and their subsequent loss during early postgraduate years has led to a reappraisal of the culture of a male dominated hierarchy in universities.² The same process has yet to be applied to medicine.

What exclusions are academic medical women facing, and to what extent does this impact on the crisis in academic medicine, where men dominate and the NHS is an alternative employer? The . . . [Full text of this article]

Magill Department of Anaesthesia, Imperial College London, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London SW10 9NH a.holdcroft@imperial.ac.uk

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