Little Shift in “Second Shifts” for Women in Academic Medicine

Publications are the basis for advancement in academia. To determine the proportion of women who published in or served as reviewers for six major medical journals, researchers analyzed data from 2010 through 2011. The findings showed that most research articles and editorials continued to be written by men; fewer than one quarter of papers published in the New England Journal of Medicine were lead-authored by women. In addition, fewer than 30% of reviewers at each of the journals were women.

In another study, which was designed to understand gender differences in the domestic responsibilities of young researchers, surveys were collected from 1049 NIH-funded physicians. Among partnered respondents with children, men spent 12 hours less per w…