The WAM (women in academic medicine) group was established to consider how best to tackle the relative lack of women in academic medicine compared with medicine generally, and the apparent lack of comparable career progression.

Our priorities

WAM's objectives are to identify actions that would enhance the position of women in academic medicine and to advise the MASC (medical academics staff committee) on any actions that it, or the wider BMA, should be taking to support this goal.

The group came about following the recommendations of the Women in Academic Medicine report, prepared by MASC and the BMA's health policy and economic research unit.

This was followed by further reports, which WAM monitors progress on, and topics including the gender pay gap in academic medicine.

• Gender pay gap in medicine and academic medicine.
• Women doctors: making a difference.

Current work

The group is currently working on:

• the analysis of its recent career progression survey
• a role models document to inspire women to consider a career in academic medicine
• responding to the academic chapter in the gender pay gap review report
• Building on work undertaken by the BMA Equality, Inclusion and Culture team for the NHS, we have prepared a model menopause policy for higher education. A copy will be sent to the university employers (UCEA) asking them to issue it to their subscribers. The BMA’s full resources on menopause can be found in our guidance called Menopause support in the workplace.

WAM webinar - Tackling harassment in medical academic workplaces

The WAM group organised this webinar in March 2024 to mark International Women's Day and to offer an opportunity for members to hear more about the work being done to tackle harassment in medical academic workplaces and to put questions to the women spearheading that work. Sarah Mills, chair of the Women in Academic Medicine committee (WAM) introduced Becky Cox, the co-chair of Surviving in Scrubs, who gave an overview of the campaign and stories from medical academic workplaces. Dr Cox was followed by Jane Illes and Janet Richardson, the co-chairs of the Tackling Sexual and Gender Based Violence in UK Medical Education group, outlining the origins, motivations and current priorities of the group.

Watch a recording of the webinar.

Our people

Chair:
Sarah Mills

Deputy chair:
Angharad Davies

Our meetings

Meeting dates: 

• Friday 8 November 2024
• Friday 9 May 2025

We will also hold a webinar in connection with International Women’s day in March and have a presence at the BMA’s annual Medical Academics Conference currently due on Friday 16 May 2024.

All meetings will take place virtually except for the conference which will be a hybrid event based at:

BMA House
Tavistock Square
London
WC1H 9JP

Conference

In 2021, the WAM (Women in academic medicine) group held its first virtual roundtable meeting at the BMA Medical Academics Conference. 

Aiming at celebrating women in academic medicine, and raising awareness of the common hurdles they face, the event panel focused its attention on:

• Role models - Carmen Soto introduced the role models document and the reasons behind it: the alarming data on the exit of women from academic medicine, and a growing need for role models to tackle this. Published for International Women’s Day, the document highlights the importance of having a diverse workforce that fully represents the society in which it works
• Teachers, educators and researchers - part of the wider work on participation in research. Funding and the Research Excellence Framework are key factors facing researchers alongside the importance of doctors identifying themselves as educators, and the need for more dedicated teachers to respond to the growing number of medical students
• Career progression - part-time and home-workers are often less likely to be promoted, having a direct impact on representation from women and minorities in the workforce. Members are encouraged to call out any lack of representation in meetings.

The WAM group, together with the Medical academic staff committee, will continue working on these priorities. 

Watch the webcast

Get in touch

If you are interested in finding out more about WAM, please contact [email protected].