Promotion of women physicians in academic medicine.

To the Editor. —The article entitled "Promotion of Women Physicians in Academic Medicine" by Dr Tesch and colleagues 1 is an important contribution to our understanding of the advancement of women in academic medicine, but the authors may too readily conclude that "women were substantially less likely to achieve promotion." The data presented show that nearly equal (and not statistically different) proportions of women (54%) and men (60%) achieved promotion to the associate professor level within 11 years on faculties of medicine. Since faculty at most medical schools remain at the assistant professor level for 7 to 10 years, these data would indicate that the majority of women and men are advancing to the level of associate professor at the anticipated rate. The data also show a discrepancy between men and women in promotion to the full professor level, with 23% of men and 5% of women achieving that rank