Deans Need Progressive Responsibility Too

Dr. Antman and her family at the 2016 American Heart Association Boston Heart & Stroke Gala Editor’s Note: This blog post complements the recently published study “The Decanal Divide: Women in Decanal Roles at U.S. Medical Schools.” Read the full study on academicmedicine.org. By: Karen Antman, MD Dr. Antman is dean, Boston University School of Medicine, provost, Boston University Medical Campus, and chair, AAMC Council of Deans Why aren’t more medical school deans women? Medical school faculty don’t normally wake up thinking, “I want to be dean.” How then does one end up there? I was asked to tell my story. First, my parents didn’t burden me with the standard expectations for girls at the time. My father expected me to be able to change the tire on the car before I was allowed to drive. My mother worked full time and actually returned to school for a masters degree when I was in high school. Thus, I was probably less conflicted about working full time when our children were young than other women whose mothers had not worked outside the home. During a college study abroad program in Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring of 1967, I studied politics and economics, contrasting capitalism and communism, and explored Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia where half of physicians were women. Clearly women were not fundamentally unsuited for medicine. Also Czech students knew more about American literature and theater than I did. After returning to the ...
Source: Academic Medicine Blog - Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Tags: Featured Guest Perspective AAMC Council of Deans Boston University Medical Campus Boston University School of Medicine gender leadership research women Source Type: blogs