Hi Sanjay and Mike, long time no see since residency days! I would like to say that you guys do a fabulous job with first Paper Chase and now EMA. I eagerly await each month's installment. On to my comment: While I applaud your efforts to address gender differences in journal editorial boards, I almost always agree with your assessment on the articles, but had a different take on this one. I think that you overstate the case in response to this article's findings. Although there are differences in percentages of women vs men on editorial boards and as editors in chief, we can make no conclusions as to what the cause of this effect is. We don't know what percent of women vs men in academics actually want to be on editorial boards or editors in chief. I'm just speculating, but it's quite possible that many women in academics, between balancing their careers, child rearing that had to be delayed (per another EMA article), and other personal interests or desire for well-being, already have a full plate and are not as desirous of major additional responsibilities, such as journal editorship. Therefore, unless there is evidence that women applicants are being disproportionately turned away from journal editorship compared to men, it is not appropriate to say that "this must change". I think that the right response is to try to find out why. If there is no evidence of discrimination, I'm not so sure that "this much change," as it may reflect differences in preferences among men and women in academics. If so, what would forcing such a change entail? I hope you wouldn't suggest coercing people to do what they do not wish to do or having a quota system where qualified candidates are turned away because they don't fit a certain demographic profile? Now that would definitely be discrimnation.
My difference of opinion on the above article notwithstanding, I think you guys do a stellar job with EMA and hope that you continue with it for a long time to come!
Thanks, Alex Kaplan MD
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Alex K. - November 1, 2021 7:07 AM
Hi Sanjay and Mike, long time no see since residency days! I would like to say that you guys do a fabulous job with first Paper Chase and now EMA. I eagerly await each month's installment. On to my comment: While I applaud your efforts to address gender differences in journal editorial boards, I almost always agree with your assessment on the articles, but had a different take on this one.
I think that you overstate the case in response to this article's findings. Although there are differences in percentages of women vs men on editorial boards and as editors in chief, we can make no conclusions as to what the cause of this effect is. We don't know what percent of women vs men in academics actually want to be on editorial boards or editors in chief. I'm just speculating, but it's quite possible that many women in academics, between balancing their careers, child rearing that had to be delayed (per another EMA article), and other personal interests or desire for well-being, already have a full plate and are not as desirous of major additional responsibilities, such as journal editorship. Therefore, unless there is evidence that women applicants are being disproportionately turned away from journal editorship compared to men, it is not appropriate to say that "this must change". I think that the right response is to try to find out why. If there is no evidence of discrimination, I'm not so sure that "this much change," as it may reflect differences in preferences among men and women in academics. If so, what would forcing such a change entail? I hope you wouldn't suggest coercing people to do what they do not wish to do or having a quota system where qualified candidates are turned away because they don't fit a certain demographic profile? Now that would definitely be discrimnation.
My difference of opinion on the above article notwithstanding, I think you guys do a stellar job with EMA and hope that you continue with it for a long time to come!
Thanks,
Alex Kaplan MD