Survey of women faculty reveals struggle to balance academics, family

New JCAHO recommendations to improve patient safety

JCAHO's 2003 National Patient Safety goals & associated recommendations

Stanford receives Consumer Choice Award, high ratings

Leaders named for new positions with clinical services, nursing & cancer center

Carole Klove named new chief compliance officer

Profile: Walter Cannon, Medical Board's longest-serving member

Voluntary clinical faculty members reinstated

Required use of passwords increases to prevent misuse of patient information

Pill-splitting can yield significant cost savings

Obituaries: Silverblatt, Richards, Lewis

Instructions: Radiology Imaging Studies Available via Web

A recent survey of women faculty in the School of Medicine finds that reports of gender discrimination, gender insensitivity and sexual harassment are down since 1994 and 1995 when similar surveys were taken.

But the most recent survey results also indicate that more resources and greater scheduling flexibility are needed to boost the number of women faculty and to better support those at the medical school. That's particularly true for the significant number of women medical faculty who care for young children or aging parents.

"There are significant unmet needs for women in this institution that cross all faculty tracks," said Mary Lake Polan, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and chair of the Committee on Women in Medicine and Science, which sent an anonymous survey to all women medical faculty in November 2001 and again in January 2002. "Clearly women have more demands on their time and more roles to fulfill. The question is, how can we better support women in their professional development?"

The survey's most surprising finding, Polan said, was that 67 percent of the 163 respondents had children, and more than 60 percent of those children were younger than age 12. The survey - a 50-item questionnaire followed by a needs assessment - was sent to 309 women medical faculty, including tenure-line, medical center- and research-line faculty, as well as staff physicians.