Women Physicians in Leadership Roles in Critical Care Medicine or Academic Medicine-A Systematic Literature Review

To systematically review and synthesize the evidence surrounding factors impacting women rising to leadership positions in critical care medicine (CCM).

PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library from 2011 to 2024.

Articles included were cohort studies, surveys, and interviews addressing women physicians practicing in CCM and related fields of academic medicine.

Causes of not rising to leadership among women were extracted and tabulated along with other pertinent study characteristics.

The database searches generated 892 records. Thirty-nine studies met inclusion criteria for data extraction. The included articles represented seven countries, with 30 studies originating in the United States. Only two studies were from CCM, whereas others addressed leadership in other academic and clinical fields of medicine, medical journals, and societies and medical faculty. Twenty-six studies were qualitative, observational studies; five were survey based and eight included interviews. Using thematic analysis, the following five domains emerged: pipeline issues, lack of opportunities, lack of self-efficacy, lack of mentorship, and sustaining women in leadership.

While the satisfaction rates of women in CCM were high, challenges remain for women to obtain leadership opportunities. A culture of support could better nurture and sustain women in leadership roles. More CCM-focused gender bias research is needed. Future targets for interventions include gender bias training, awareness, and developing strategies to break through the cycle of gender preferential promotions in CCM.