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Original research
Gender equity in academic rheumatology, current status and potential for improvement: a cross-sectional study to inform an EULAR task force
  1. Pavel V Ovseiko1,2,
  2. Laure Gossec3,4,
  3. Laura Andreoli5,6,
  4. Uta Kiltz7,
  5. Leonieke van Mens8,
  6. Neelam Hassan9,10,
  7. Marike van der Leeden11,
  8. Heidi J Siddle12,13,
  9. Alessia Alunno14,
  10. Iain B McInnes15,
  11. Nemanja S Damjanov16,
  12. Florence Apparailly17,
  13. Caroline Ospelt18,19,
  14. Irene E van der Horst-Bruinsma20,
  15. Elena Nikiphorou21,22,
  16. Katie L Druce23,
  17. Zoltán Szekanecz24,
  18. Alexandre Sepriano25,26,
  19. Tadej Avcin27,
  20. George Bertsias28,
  21. Georg Schett29,30,
  22. Anne-Maree Keenan12,31,32,
  23. Linda H Pololi33 and
  24. Laura C Coates2,34
  1. 1Radcliffe Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
  2. 2NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford, UK
  3. 3Institut Pierre Louis d'Epidémiologie et de Santé Publique, INSERM, Sorbonne Universite, Paris, France
  4. 4Rheumatology Department, APHP.Sorbonne Universite, Hopital Universitaire Pitie Salpetriere, Paris, France
  5. 5Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
  6. 6Unit of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, ASST Spedali Civili di Brescia, Brescia, Italy
  7. 7Department of Rheumatology, Rheumazentrum Ruhrgebiet, Ruhr-University Bochum, Herne, Germany
  8. 8Department of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, Amsterdam Rheumatology and Immunology Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  9. 9Department of Rheumatology, Southmead Hospital, North Bristol NHS Trust, Bristol, UK
  10. 10Musculoskeletal Research Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
  11. 11Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Amsterdam Movement Sciences, Reade Centre for Rehabilitation and Rheumatology, Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
  12. 12Leeds Institute of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
  13. 13NIHR Leeds Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Centre, Leeds, UK
  14. 14Internal Medicine and Nephrology Unit, Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy
  15. 15Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
  16. 16University of Belgrade School of Medicine, Medigroup Hospital, Rheumatology, Belgrade, Serbia
  17. 17IRMB, University of Montpellier, INSERM, Montpellier, France
  18. 18Center of Experimental Rheumatology, Department of Rheumatology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
  19. 19University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
  20. 20Department of Rheumatology, Amsterdam University Medical Center, Location VU Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  21. 21Rheumatology Department, King’s College Hospital, London, UK
  22. 22Centre for Rheumatic Diseases, School of Immunology and Microbial Sciences, King’s College London, London, UK
  23. 23Centre for Epidemiology Versus Arthritis, Division of Musculoskeletal and Dermatological Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
  24. 24Department of Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
  25. 25Department of Rheumatology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
  26. 26NOVA Medical School, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
  27. 27Department of Allergology, Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, University Children’s Hospital, University Medical Center Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
  28. 28Department of Rheumatology, Clinical Immunology and Allergy, University of Crete Medical School, Heraklion, Greece
  29. 29Deutsches Zentrum für Immuntherapie, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg and Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany
  30. 30Department of Internal Medicine 3, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg and Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany
  31. 31School of Healthcare, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
  32. 32NIHR Leeds Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit, Leeds, UK
  33. 33National Initiative on Gender, Culture and Leadership in Medicine: C-Change, Women’s Studies Research Center, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA
  34. 34Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Laura C Coates; laura.coates{at}ndorms.ox.ac.uk

Abstract

Objectives Evidence on the current status of gender equity in academic rheumatology in Europe and potential for its improvement is limited. The EULAR convened a task force to obtain empirical evidence on the potential unmet need for support of female rheumatologists, health professionals and non-clinical scientists in academic rheumatology.

Methods This cross-sectional study comprised three web-based surveys conducted in 2020 among: (1) EULAR scientific member society leaders, (2) EULAR and Emerging EULAR Network (EMEUNET) members and (3) EULAR Council members. Statistics were descriptive with significance testing for male/female responses assessed by χ2 test and t-test.

Results Data from EULAR scientific member societies in 13 countries indicated that there were disproportionately fewer women in academic rheumatology than in clinical rheumatology, and they tended to be under-represented in senior academic roles. From 324 responses of EULAR and EMEUNET members (24 countries), we detected no gender differences in leadership aspirations, self-efficacy in career advancement and work–life integration as well as the share of time spent on research, but there were gender differences in working hours and the levels of perceived gender discrimination and sexual harassment. There were gender differences in the ranking of 7 of 26 factors impacting career advancement and of 8 of 24 potential interventions to aid career advancement.

Conclusions There are gender differences in career advancement in academic rheumatology. The study informs a EULAR task force developing a framework of potential interventions to accelerate gender-equitable career advancement in academic rheumatology.

  • health services research
  • qualitative research
  • epidemiology
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/rmdopen-2022-002518

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @lauraandreoli80, @CarolineOspelt, @ElenaNikiUK, @drlauracoates

    • Contributors All authors have contributed to this work and approved the final version. LCC acts as guarantor.

    • Funding This study was funded by the EULAR (project number: EPI 024). LCC is supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Oxford Biomedical Research Centre. PVO is supported by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement number: 872396). HS and A-MK are supported by the NIHR Leeds Biomedical Research Centre. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the UK National Health Service, the NIHR or the UK Department of Health and Social Care.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.