Status of women in small academic medical communities: case study of the Zagreb University School of Medicine.

Aim: To analyze the proportion of women among student and teaching bodies of the Zagreb University School of Medicine between 1950 and 2000.

Methods: The data on medical school graduates from the Zagreb University School of Medicine between 1950 and 2000 were collected from the archive of the School. The data on the School's teaching staff between 1950 and 2000 were collected from the Archive of the Zagreb University. The data collected were the number of women among graduate students, grade average of medical school graduates, and the number of women within different faculty ranks among the teaching staff.

Results: The proportion of women among medical school graduates increased from 26% to 67% during the last 50 years. The grades showed significant inflation between 1970 and 1990. In 1990 and 2000, men had significantly higher grades than women. The proportion of female teaching staff increased during the same period from 28% to 34%. The proportion of assistants was significantly higher among female teaching staff in every studied year. The proportion of professors among male and female teaching staff increased at the same rate until 1990, when the proportion of male professors decreased because of the decrease in the absolute number of male professors.

Conclusion: Women in Croatia are beginning to advance in academic medicine although the number of women among the teaching staff is far smaller than that of men, most probably because of delayed entrance of women into academic medicine.