Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Strategies to achieve gender equity in nephrology

Nature Reviews Nephrology volume 19, pages 419–420 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

The advancement of women to leadership positions in nephrology lags behind that of men by several metrics. Proactive, intentional approaches, including mentorship and sponsorship, family-friendly policies, career development in hard and soft skills, combatting bias and use of transparent institutional metrics of women’s advancement, are required to address this disparity.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Akabas, M. H. & Brass, L. F. The national MD-PhD program outcomes study: outcomes variation by sex, race, and ethnicity. JCI Insight 4, e133010 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Sheltzer, J. M. & Smith, J. C. Elite male faculty in the life sciences employ fewer women. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 111, 10107–10112 (2014).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. AAMC. The State of Women in Academic Medicine: Exploring Pathways to Equity (2020).

  4. Nielsen, M. W., Andersen, J. P., Schiebinger, L. & Schneider, J. W. One and a half million medical papers reveal a link between author gender and attention to gender and sex analysis. Nat. Hum. Behav. 1, 791–796 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Keating, J. A., Jasper, A., Musuuza, J., Templeton, K. & Safdar, N. Supporting midcareer women faculty in academic medicine through mentorship and sponsorship. J. Contin. Educ. Health Prof. 42, 197–203 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Lewiss, R. E. et al. Is academic medicine making mid-career women physicians invisible? J. Womens Health (Larchmt.) 29, 187–192 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Pfund, C., Byars-Winston, A., Branchaw, J., Hurtado, S. & Eagan, K. Defining attributes and metrics of effective research mentoring relationships. AIDS Behav. 20 (Suppl. 2), 238–248 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Chrousos, G. P. & Mentis, A. A. Imposter syndrome threatens diversity. Science 367, 749–750 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Chow, R. Don’t just sponsor women and people of color — defend them. Harvard Business Review, https://hbr.org/2023/02/dont-just-sponsor-women-and-people-of-color-defend-them (14 February 2023).

  10. O’Lone, E. & Webster, A. C. Barriers to the professional advancement of women in nephrology. Clin. J. Am. Soc. Nephrol. 14, 1399–1401 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA

    Lisa M. Curtis

  2. Division of Nephrology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA

    Lisa M. Curtis

Authors
  1. Lisa M. Curtis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lisa M. Curtis.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

L.M.C. is past-president of Women in Nephrology, which is an international, non-profit professional organization.

Additional information

Related links

Women in Nephrology: www.womeninnephrology.org

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Curtis, L.M. Strategies to achieve gender equity in nephrology. Nat Rev Nephrol 19, 419–420 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41581-023-00703-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41581-023-00703-2

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing