A writing group for female assistant professors.
The number of female medical school faculty being promoted and the speed at which they are promoted have not kept pace with their male counterparts at many institutions. One of the reasons is that these women are not publishing peer reviewed manuscripts at an equivalent rate. This study evaluates the impact of a women's writing group on faculty publication rates. The writing group was conducted by 2 senior faculty members at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and targeted female junior faculty. The writing group consisted of a didactic skills curriculum, question sessions, and both faculty and peer support to improve publishing rates. Curriculum vitae were collected, and PubMed and Ovid searches were used to establish the publishing productivity of the writing group participants both before and after participation in the writing group. On average, women who completed the writing group showed a nearly 3-fold increase in average publishing rate from 1.5 papers per year preceding the course to 4.5 per year following completion of the writing group (p<.001). The results from our program suggest that a women's writing group is an effective intervention for increasing publishing rates of female junior faculty. In addition to the documented improvement in publication rates, we watched participants develop clearer writing styles, lose many of their inhibitions about writing, respond to group affiliation and collaboration, and gain tremendous self-confidence.