At a time when women make up half of all medical school students, Reshma Jagsi, M.D., D.Phil., had hoped to show that gender bias, or at least more overt sexual harassment, were no longer significant issues in her field.

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But, in a survey of high-achieving physician-scientists, she found that nearly a third of women reported experiencing sexual harassment.

“This is a sobering reminder that our society has a long way to go before we achieve gender equity,” says Jagsi, associate professor and deputy chair of radiation oncology at the University of Michigan Medical School.

Jagsi and her colleagues surveyed 1,066 physician-scientists about their career experiences, including questions about gender bias, gender advantage and sexual harassment.

Women were more likely than men to report both perceptions and experiences with gender bias: 70 percent of women versus 22 percent of men perceived gender bias, and 66 percent of women versus 10 percent of men said they experienced gender bias. In addition, 30 percent of women compared to 4 percent of men said they had experienced sexual harassment.

Jagsi discussed the findings, which are published in JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.