Striving for success: essential skills for women in academic medicine

Despite progress toward workplace gender equality in academic medicine, women continue to face disparities that may hinder career advancement. Women (Physicians and Scientists) @ Children’s Hospital (W@TCH) is an institutional program established in 1999 to support the professional development and advancement of women faculty. The purpose of this report is to evaluate the Women in Leadership curriculum implemented as part of W@TCH between 2012 and 2017. From 2012 to 2017, the Women (Physicians and Scientists) @ Children’s Hospital (W@TCH) committee designed and implemented a Women in Leadership curriculum which consisted of interactive lectures and half-day-long, end-of-year workshops covering a range of topics designed to address the needs of junior faculty. Program evaluations were conducted through post-event surveys in which participants rated aspects of each workshop on a Likert scale (1–5). Participants consistently rated events from the Women in Leadership program as “very effective” or “highly effective”, and median satisfaction ratings for events rose between 2013 and 2017, from 4.5/5 to 4.75/5. Topics covered in the curriculum were relevant to participants’ needs. In a follow-up survey administered in 2024, 93% of respondents expressed interest in more W@TCH related events. The W@TCH Women in Leadership curriculum was a successful component of a broader institutional initiative to support women in academic medicine. More than 25 years after its founding, W@TCH remains active through mentoring, networking, leadership development, faculty recognition, and advocacy efforts. Sustained programs such as W@TCH may serve as important mechanisms to promote the advancement, retention, and leadership development of women in academic medicine.