Women in academic psychiatry in Canada

A comparison of numbers of women psychiatrists with faculty appointments and women residents in Departments of Psychiatry in Canada in 1975 and 1985 showed that the average percentage of women faculty has increased from 11.4% to 14.3% and of women residents from 23.5% to 43.4%. Some departments appeared to be oblivious to the special educational role of women faculty and had not discussed the discrepancy between the numbers of faculty and residents. Only two departments were actively recruiting women faculty. The study also demonstrated a continued concentration of women in the lower ranks. Barriers to recruiting women faculty include lack of academic role models, job advertising not specifically designed to attract women candidates, rigid requirements for appointments, women's lack of access to male corridors of power, pervasive underlying doubts about women's abilities and competence based on cultural stereotypes, female socialization which does not lend itself readily to roles of authority, assertiveness and leadership, and the role strain that ensues when women psychiatrists try to combine career, marriage and motherhood. If women psychiatrists are to fill some of the positions in Departments of Psychiatry, which will fall vacant over the next decade, much more attention must be paid to eliminating or diminishing the multiple obstacles for women who chose a career in academic psychiatry.