You might expect young women scientists to make less than older men. But veteran female life science researchers, even in very advanced positions, still make less than their male counterparts. So finds a report in the journal Academic Medicine. [See http://bit.ly/9C7nlF]
Previous studies about income disparities in the life sciences didn’t take into account factors such as holding leadership positions. So for this study, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital surveyed more than 3,000 investigators at the top 50 academic medical centers. The anonymous responses included information on professional leadership activities, the number of papers published and the journals they were in, hours spent working on professional, scientific and clinical activities—and, of course, pay.
Women in the same academic positions as men worked more hours. But they made on average six to 15,000 dollars less per year than their male counterparts.
Over a 30-year career for an average faculty member, that disparity could result in a more than $200,000 difference. Lead researcher Eric Campbell says he suspects that, “Major systemic changes will be needed if we ever hope to achieve the ideal of equal pay for equal work in academic medicine.”
—Cynthia Graber
[The above text is an exact transcript of this podcast.]
