14 Dec Medical Research: Men Received More Funding Than Women
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Mike Head
Network Manager
Infectious Disease Research Network
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: The differences in total funding received between male and female principal investigators (PIs) is considerable. This can be partially explained by there being far more male senior scientists than female. But this in itself is not ideal, and there are two further causes for concern:
1. The median award size – male PIs receive larger awards than female PIs, across virtually every topic area and type of science.
2. The differences in median award size and total funding awarded by gender remain virtually unchanged across the fourteen years of this dataset. The gap is not closing.
MedicalResearch.com: Were any of the findings unexpected?
Answer: The two findings above are perhaps unexpected, and certainly concerning.
MedicalResearch.com: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?
Answer: The topic is of less immediate relevance to patients; however, clinicians who do research should be involved in discussions to close the clear gender gap in research. There are roughly equal numbers of men and women as early career researchers, but it appears to be harder for women to reach senior positions where they are able to apply for their own funding.
MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Answer: We strongly urge policy-makers, funders and scientists to urgently investigate the factors leading to the observed differences and develop policies developed to address them, in order to ensure that women are appropriately supported in scientific endeavour. Excellent scientific minds are currently being lost to biomedical research, and this simply must be investigated.
Citation:
Michael G Head, Joseph R Fitchett, Mary K Cooke, Fatima B Wurie, Rifat Atun
BMJ Open 2013;3:12 e003362 doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2013-003362
Last Updated on December 14, 2013 by Marie Benz MD FAAD