There Are Enough Qualified Women鈥擨ntentionality Overcomes Implicit Bias

Melina R. Kibbe

doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2024.3347

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Editorial

September 4, 2024

There Are Enough Qualified Women鈥擨ntentionality Overcomes Implicit Bias

Melina R.聽Kibbe,聽MD^1,2

Author Affiliations Article Information

¹Departments of Surgery and Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville
²Editor, JAMA Surgery

JAMA Surg. 2024;159(11):1233-1234. doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2024.3347

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Today, women represent 29% of US full-time academic surgical faculty and 47% of general surgery residents.¹ Yet, women surgeons still lag behind men with an even lower percentage of representation when it comes to serving as a principal investigator of clinical trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov, delivering keynote talks at national and international meetings, being a panelist at meetings, serving as invited grand rounds speakers, authoring invited articles for publication in peer reviewed journals, being promoted in academic rank, receiving tenure, or serving in academic leadership positions as Division Chief and Chair.²^-4

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1 Comment for this article

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September 5, 2024

More than Metrics

Eleanor Gradidge, MD | University of Nebraska Medical Center

I enthusiastically applaud your editorial. This is the first time I have read JAMA Surgery as I am a Pediatric Intensivist. I am currently doing my own personal deep dive into reducing bias through creation of inclusion and equity. I would push for inclusion of more than the traditional gender binary we have become accustomed to in research. And I also venture to wonder about the diversity of the author races and ethnicities. Most people acknowledge that systemic bias exists. However, the onus to correct the bias of a system that was created over many decades often filters down to the individual level. Ironically, people who undergo unconscious bias trainings are more aware of bias in others but deny it in themselves. Thereby perpetuating the problem. How much is retained from these trainings anyways? What about implicit bias of an organization? How can we move to correct the inequities of using fewer women for invited commentaries because fewer women experts have not yet climbed the ladder? Simple adjustments like adjusting the terminology we use - 鈥榰nderestimated鈥� rather than 鈥榰nderrepresented鈥� - can have a greater impact. As you have pointed out 鈥淭here are enough qualified women.鈥� I will continue to work on myself, as you have also done, and I hope the system will too.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST: I am a woman with implicit bias.

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