Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Call to action: gender equity in neonatology

Journal of Perinatology volume 42, pages 982–983 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

A Correction to this article was published on 04 October 2022

This article has been updated

Similar to statements from the Association of American Medical Colleges [4], American College of Physicians [5], and American Academy of Pediatrics [6], we call upon the Section of Neonatal Perinatal Medicine (SoNPM) to address the significant gender inequities in our field with the following commitments and actions:

  1. 1.

    Publication of SoNPM’s position on workforce gender equity, diversity, and inclusion.

  2. 2.

    Ongoing evaluation of gender-specific data on these measures:

    1. a.

      Leadership and recognition – SoNPM executive committee, lectureships, awards, and editorial boards.

    2. b.

      Scholarship – Authors, conference moderators, speakers, and panels.

    3. c.

      Compensation and benefits – member salaries (adjusted for relevant variables) and workplace benefits and policies regarding flexibility, family leave, childcare, and lactation.

  3. 3.

    Transparent metric reporting (published on the SoNPM website and in journals) with annual oversight.

  4. 4.

    Corrective interventions including, but not limited to:

    1. a.

      Advocate for equity in the domains of leadership, scholarship, and compensation.

    2. b.

      Align SoNPM funding with interest group size, engagement, activity, and need to achieve gender equity.

    3. c.

      Develop a system to ensure gender diversity of the SoNPM executive committee, appointed positions, lectureships, awards, and conference faculty and planning members.

    4. d.

      Provide training on implicit bias, mentorship, sponsorship, and male allyship strategies for SoNPM members.

    5. e.

      Establish childcare and lactation resources for SoNPM meetings.

    6. f.

      Advocate for career development initiatives, including coaching and broader promotion criteria.

Publication of SoNPM’s position on workforce gender equity, diversity, and inclusion.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Gender representation in various neonatology workforce domains.

Change history

References

  1. Lautenberger DM, Dandar VM, American Association of Medical Colleges. The State of Women in Academic Medicine Report: 2018–2019. 2020.

  2. Horowitz E, Randis TM, Samnaliev M, Savich R. Equity for women in medicine-neonatologists identify issues. J Perinatol. 2021;41:435–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. American Board of Pediatrics. Certification Management System - general information on all certified diplomates 2021. Available from: https://www.abp.org/content/general-information-all-certified-diplomates.

  4. American Association of Medical Colleges Board of Directors. American Association of Medical Colleges Statement on Gender Equity. 2020.

  5. Butkus R, Serchen J, Moyer DV, Bornstein SS, Hingle ST, for the Health and Public Policy Committee of the American College of Physicians. Achieving gender equity in physician compensation and career advancement: a position paper of the American College of Physicians. Ann Intern Med. 2018;168:721–3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Del Monte M, Levin S, Martin S, Moyer D, Phipps M, Pollack R. Women in Medicine: Call to Action. Pediatrics. 2021;148 https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2021-051440J.

Download references

Funding

This work was supported by a Strategic Grant from the American Academy of Pediatrics Section of Neonatal Perinatal Medicine. The American Academy of Pediatrics Section of Neonatal Perinatal Medicine had no role in the design and conduct of this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA

    Kerri Z. Machut

  2. Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Kerri Z. Machut

  3. Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    Shazia Bhombal

  4. Department of Pediatrics, University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Oklahoma City, OK, USA

    Marilyn Escobedo

  5. Mission Children’s Hospital, Asheville, NC, USA

    Jasmeet Kataria-Hale

  6. Department of Pediatrics, Cooper Children’s Regional Hospital, Camden, NJ, USA

    Alla Kushnir

  7. Department of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Krithika Lingappan

  8. Department of Pediatrics, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA

    Christiana N. Oji-Mmuo

  9. Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    Lisa Owens

  10. Department of Pediatrics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    Renate Savich

  11. Southern California Permanente Medical Group, Anaheim, CA, USA

    Clara Song

  12. Pediatrix/Obstetrix of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA

    Rachel Wright

  13. Department of Pediatrics, Tufts Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Christiane E. L. Dammann

Authors
  1. Kerri Z. Machut
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Shazia Bhombal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Marilyn Escobedo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jasmeet Kataria-Hale
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Alla Kushnir
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Krithika Lingappan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Christiana N. Oji-Mmuo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Lisa Owens
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Renate Savich
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Clara Song
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Rachel Wright
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Christiane E. L. Dammann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Data collection (KM, ME, AK, KL, RS, CS), first manuscript draft (KM), all authors revised the manuscript critically for substantive content, approved the final version, and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kerri Z. Machut.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

The original online version of this article was revised: Figure 1 and the legend have been corrected.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Machut, K.Z., Bhombal, S., Escobedo, M. et al. Call to action: gender equity in neonatology. J Perinatol 42, 982–983 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-022-01390-w

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-022-01390-w

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links