Structure and career advancement in cardiology in Italy

Women are less present on the labor market and many studies have demonstrated the existence of gender differences regarding participation rate and career advancement of women. The process through which job-, career- and research-related choices are structured within the realm of Italian cardiology, is described in this study emphasizing the effects of productivity, gender and family commitments. In June 1996, a questionnaire was mailed to all members of the Italian societies of cardiology. It included mainly (pre-coded) set-choice questions concerning individual characteristics, career-related data, and information pertaining to teaching, scientific and research activity. Returned questionnaires numbered 1715 (21.4% of the total mailed), 83% were completed by males and 17% by females. For both hospital and academic careers, advancement in rank was influenced by variables denoting productivity, family and individual characteristics. Promotion to the upper ranks of the hierarchy was highly dependent upon time (once the effects of the covariates were eliminated). This is a situation that is typical of the internal labor market, that is, of an institution in which staff members are ranked on a hierarchical scale according to formal criteria that are "rigid" and institutionalized, partially and totally sheltered from competition. Therefore, once a member has gained access to the first level of the hierarchy, his/her professional career is to a certain extent pre-determined and the seniority ends up taking on importance in promotion decisions to an appreciable extent; in this field, the weight of seniority on promotion ranges between 30 and 50%.