The resources below are organized into two categories: institutional and individual. Many of the barriers to promotion come from systemic and institutional factors, not from individual performance. This resource hub explains those factors and offers practical strategies individuals can use to navigate them.
Understanding the systems that shape promotion and compensation.
feminem
Promotion & Salary Negotiation | FemInEM RAFT
Practical tools to understand promotion systems, advocate for yourself, and push for institutional change.
Gender Inequity in EM Promotions
Reviews promotion disparities in EM and suggests institutional reforms.
Development of Best Practice Recommendations in the Advancement of Women EPs
Outlines evidence-based strategies for institutions to support women’s academic career advancement.
Gaps in Leadership Attainment and Promotion in Women EPs
Summarizes persistent gender gaps in leadership roles and promotion rates in EM.
Overcoming Barriers to Promotion for Women EPs
Identifies key institutional and cultural barriers and offers solutions for equitable advancement.
Gender Disparities in Academic Emergency Medicine
Investigates structural inequities, leadership representation, and attrition trends in EM.
Women’s Experiences of Promotion in Academic EM
Presents qualitative insights into women’s lived experiences navigating the promotion process.
If you are interested in learning more about what your institution can do to mitigate these barriers, visit the FemInEM RAFT Module on Promotion and Salary.
Practical tools and strategies for navigating promotion and advocating for yourself.
Overview of Promotion
A concise overview of appointment, promotion, and tenure in academic medicine.
Guide for Clinician-Educators on Promotion
Detailed advice tailored to clinician-educators seeking promotion.
Letter Writing Resource
How to write compelling letters for promotion and recommendation.
SAEM Academic Promotions Tool Kit
A toolkit offering a pragmatic approach to the promotion process in academic emergency medicine.
Women Don’t Self-Promote, But Maybe They Should
These strategies will help women overcome the gender promotion gap, engage in better self-promotion, and become more visible at work.
Gender Differences in Faculty Ranking
Analyzes differences in academic rank between male and female faculty in EM.
Women in Medicine: Be Bold
Podcast encouraging women to embrace leadership roles and visibility.
Physician Compensation Report 2026
A report with the nation’s largest physician compensation data sets including workforce surveys, recruiting activity, and staffing trends.
AAMC Faculty Salary Report
A report displaying total compensation statistics for full-time medical school faculty broken out by degree, rank, department/specialty, medical school type, region, gender, and race/ethnicity.
AAMC Survey of Resident/Fellow Stipends and Benefits
A report providing aggregate data from the AAMC Survey of Resident/Fellow Stipends and Benefits.
Contract Negotiation Skills: A Workshop for Women in Medicine (MedEdPORTAL, 2020)
A structured, evidence-based workshop curriculum addressing negotiation microskills, the role of gender in negotiation dynamics, and practical role-play for contract negotiation — directly applicable to support group programming and skill-building sessions.
Personal Activity: Your Salary and Promotion Audit
The resources here show how much of the compensation and promotion gap is structural — but there are also concrete, personal steps that help you understand your own position and build the tools to advocate for yourself and others. This activity is designed to help you understand where you stand, identify gaps, and prepare to advocate for yourself.
Know your number. Using the Doximity Compensation Report, AAMC salary data, or specialty-specific benchmarks, research the median compensation for your role, specialty, geographic region, and years of experience. Compare it to your current salary. If there's a gap, write down what you think explains it — and whether that explanation is one you accept.
Map your promotion trajectory. Where are you in the academic or organizational ladder? What are the stated criteria for the next rung, and how clearly were they communicated to you? Write down two to three accomplishments in the past year that you believe qualify you for advancement — and consider whether you have communicated them to the people who make promotion decisions.
Identify your sponsor. Think about the most powerful advocate in your professional life — the person who mentions your name in rooms you're not in, who nominates you for opportunities, who puts their own reputation behind yours. If you can name that person easily, write down what you can do to deepen that relationship. If you cannot name that person, write down who in your orbit has the most influence and what it would take to build a sponsorship relationship with them.
Draft a one-sentence ask. Using what you learned from the negotiation research and the AAMC salary equity resources, draft a single sentence you could use to open a salary or promotion conversation with your department chair or supervisor. It should be grounded in data, specific about what you're asking for, and framed in terms of your value to the institution — not an apology.