Women, racial and ethnic minorities, and individuals identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer are disproportionately affected by workplace mistreatment in academic medicine, a study finds.

This mistreatment negatively affects their mental health, the findings show.

The study, which appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association, looked specifically at three aspects of workplace mistreatment in academic medicine—sexual harassment, cyber incivility, and negative workplace climate—and whether they differ by gender, race and ethnicity, and LGBTQ+ status. Additionally, the study examined whether these factors are associated with faculty mental health.

Researchers surveyed a total of 830 faculty members who received National Institutes of Health career development awards in 2006–09 and remained in academia. Experiences were compared by gender, race and ethnicity, and LGBTQ+ status.

The study found that high rates of sexual harassment, cyber incivility, and negative workplace climate disproportionately target marginalized individuals, including women, those whose race or ethnicity has been underrepresented in medicine, and members of the LGBTQ+ community, and these experiences were associated with poorer mental health.

“Understanding the nature and frequency of experiences with harassment is the essential first step to inform a broader cultural transformation process,” says Reshma Jagsi, chair of the radiational oncology department at Emory University School of Medicine. “Cultural transformation of the medical profession is critical to foster civil work environments within which the best and brightest members of society can thrive in their pursuit of the admirable mission to promote human health through care delivery, research, and education.”

Key findings show that women were more likely than men to experience sexual harassment, including gender harassment and unwanted sexual attention.

Of the women surveyed, 71.9% reported that they experienced gender harassment during the past two years, compared to 44.9% of men. Women rated both the general and diversity workplace climate as worse than men and reported certain forms of incivility, sexist comments, and sexual harassment when using social media professionally. In addition, mental health ratings were lower for women, and this difference appeared partly explained by differences in culture experiences.

Read the full article about academic harassment against minority women in medicine by Jenny Owen at Futurity.