On Being Dr. Mom

In my 4 years as both academic physician and parent, I have learned the following: The day that the babysitter calls in sick is invariably the same day that your children are battling a gastrointestinal virus, you have 20 patients on your outpatient schedule, 2 of these patients will require hospitalization, and 12 medical students expect you to precept a session on medical interviewing. It is also likely to be the day before your most recent grant application is due. If your spouse enjoys the same career as you, he or she is apt to be 400 miles away at a scientific meeting.

I use hyperbole to make a point, but the frequency of such confluences of events in the lives of academic physician parents may help to explain the findings that Carr and coworkers report in this issue [1]. A growing body of research demonstrates that women ascend the ranks of academic medicine more slowly, to lower levels, and with smaller paychecks than their male colleagues [2-4]. Carr and coworkers explored the possible reasons for these discrepancies and found slower career progress and less professional satisfaction for women with children than for men with children or faculty without children. Like much good research, this study generates more questions than it answers.

Are the problems greater for academic medical mothers than for those in other professions? All working parents perform a precarious juggling act, yet academic medicine's work ethic separates it from other demanding professions. People get sick without regard for business hours, weekends, and holidays. Businesses close on holidays; hospitals do not. Unrealistic as it may be, …