A Message from the Duke GI Women's Committee!

The Duke GI Women’s Committee was established as a resource for faculty and fellows to identify and address challenges faced by women following academic careers. The Women’s Committee aims to support women at various stages of their careers in Gastroenterology and Hepatology. The Duke GI Division and the wider Duke community are truly committed to fostering a supportive and equitable work environment for women as well as facilitating career advancement among women faculty and trainees.

The Duke GI Division has long been at the forefront in recruiting and hiring women faculty and fellows. Although less than 17% of the gastroenterologists in the U.S. are women, over 40% of the current Duke clinical faculty and more than half the current Duke GI fellows are women. These women provide a rich resource for networking and the opportunity to learn from colleagues in a variety of career stages within the Division. In addition, the chair of the Women’s Committee serves on the Division Chief’s Leadership Cabinet to ensure issues and concerns raised by the Committee are expressed and addressed.

Among the goals of the Duke GI Women’s Committee is to provide a number of professional development resources including topics such as identifying and meeting the challenges of a career in academic medicine, keys to successful promotion and tenure, salary equity and negotiation skills, and the impact of caregiving on academic advancement and tenure. Last year, the Women’s Committee created a task force to draft a Parental Leave Policy that was reviewed by the Committee, approved by the Division faculty, and is now in effect. The new policy provides substantial improvements in terms of time off and schedule modifications for our trainees and demonstrated the strength of our collaborative efforts. All this while striving to build a strong sense of community among women gastroenterologists at Duke and beyond.