Institutional Variability in Representation of Women and Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups Among Medical School Faculty

Bolstering the ranks of women and underrepresented groups in medicine (URM) among medical faculty can help address ongoing health care disparities and therefore constitutes a critical public health need. There are increasing proportions of URM faculty, but comparisons of these changes with shifts in regional populations are lacking. To quantify the representation of women and URM and assess changes and variability in representation by individual US medical schools. This retrospective cross-sectional study assessed US medical school faculty rosters for women and URM, including American Indian and Alaska Native, Black, Hispanic, and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander faculty. US allopathic medical schools participating in the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Faculty Administrative Management Online User System from 1990 to 2019 (updated December 31 for each year), were included. Faculty data were analyzed from yearly cross-sections updated as of December 31 for each year from 1990 to 2019. For census data, decennial census data were used for years 1990, 2000, and 2010. Intercensal estimates were used for all other years from 1990 to 2019. Trends and variability in representation quotient (RQ), defined as representation of a group within an institution's faculty compared to its respective US county. There were 121 AAMC member institutions (72 076 faculty) in 1990, which increased to 144 institutions (184 577 faculty) in 2019. The median RQ of women faculty increased from 0.42 (IQR, 0.37-0.46) to 0.80 (IQR, 0.74-0.89) (slope, +1.4% per year; P