Women Physicians in Leadership Roles in Critical Care Medicine or Academic Medicine

Monday, March 23, 2026

9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Central Time

Location: Connections Central - RST 12

Shahla Siddiqui, MD, MSc, FCCM

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Massachusetts

Disclosure information not submitted.
Talia Ben-Jacob, MD, MSc, FCCM

Cooper University Hospital, New Jersey

Disclosure information not submitted.
JC

Jarva Chow, MD, MPH, MS

Assistant Professor
U of Chicago

Disclosure information not submitted.
BG

Bhargavi Gali, MD

Assistant Professor
Mayo Clinic

Disclosure information not submitted.
JC

Jessica Cassavaugh, MD Phd

Instructor
BIDMC

Disclosure information not submitted.
EC

Elizabeth Cotter, MD

Assistant Professor
University of Kansas Health System

Disclosure information not submitted.
MS

Margo Short, MD

Assistant Professor
KUMC

Disclosure information not submitted.
CR

Cortessa Russell, MD

Associate Professor
Columbia University Medical Center

Disclosure information not submitted.
TM

Teresa Mulaikal, MD

Associate Professor
Columbia University

Disclosure information not submitted.
SG

Shweta Golhar, MD

Staff physician
BIDMC

Disclosure information not submitted.

Introduction: To systematically review and synthesize the evidence surrounding factors impacting women rising to leadership positions in critical care medicine (CCM).

Methods: DATA SOURCES:
PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library from 2011 to 2024.

STUDY SELECTION:
Articles included were cohort studies, surveys, and interviews addressing women physicians practicing in CCM and related fields of academic medicine.

DATA EXTRACTION:
Causes of not rising to leadership among women were extracted and tabulated along with other pertinent study characteristics.

Results: The database searches generated 892 records. Thirty-nine studies met inclusion criteria for data extraction. The included articles represented seven countries, with 30 studies originating in the United States. Only two studies were from CCM, whereas others addressed leadership in other academic and clinical fields of medicine, medical journals, and societies and medical faculty. Twenty-six studies were qualitative, observational studies; five were survey based and eight included interviews. Using thematic analysis, the following five domains emerged: pipeline issues, lack of opportunities, lack of self-efficacy, lack of mentorship, and sustaining women in leadership.

Conclusions: While the satisfaction rates of women in CCM were high, challenges remain for women to obtain leadership opportunities. A culture of support could better nurture and sustain women in leadership roles. More CCM-focused gender bias research is needed. Future targets for interventions include gender bias training, awareness, and developing strategies to break through the cycle of gender preferential promotions in CCM.