Women Deans: Carving a Unique Path in Academic Medicine

Abstract

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study is to identify and describe the essence of the lived experience of women deans in the leadership of academic medicine in Canada. The scholarly literature documents a multitude of complex career disadvantages that limit women physician’s ascension through the hierarchy of academic medicine. According to Robb (1999), it was not until 1999 that the first woman became dean of a Canadian medical school. There have only been eight women full deans of medicine in the 174 year history of medical schools in Canada (Tricco et al., 2021). At this current glacial pace it would take 50 years to reach gender parity among deans of medicine (Jacobson et al., 2021). Prior strategies to ameliorate the career trajectories for women in academic medicine have been deemed insufficient as the gender gap in senior leadership has persisted (Larson et al., 2019) despite decades of women comprising greater than 50% of medical school graduates. Eight women deans were selected via criterion-based purposeful sampling, followed by snowball sampling. Four were full dean and four were vice, assistant, or associate deans. Semi-structured, in-depth phenomenological interviews were conducted, digitally recorded, and transcribed verbatim. The data were analyzed using a phenomenological approach. Six themes were elucidated: authentic self, building a support team, sexism and the culture of medicine, woman dean as agent of change, becoming a dean and getting the job, and success on the job. The participants shared that they presented their authentic selves in all contexts while having a carefully cultivated team of supportive people in their lives. They were successful at walking the fine gender line and navigating a unique path through academic medicine. These features of their lived experience allowed the women to be an agent of change and to attain their decanal position while also being exceedingly successful in their role as dean.