Overcoming COVID-19: Strategies to Mitigate the Perpetuated Gender Achievement Gap

Gender inequity in academic achievement was well documented prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and evolving data suggest that women in academic surgery are disproportionately disadvantaged by the pandemic. This perspective piece reviews currently accepted solutions to the gender achievement gap, with their associated shortcomings. We also propose innovative strategies to overcoming barriers to gender equity in academic medicine that broadly fall into three categories: strategies to mitigate inequitable caregiving responsibilities, strategies to reduce cognitive load, and strategies to value uncompensated, impactful work. These approaches address inequities at the system-level, as opposed to the individual-level, lifting the burden of changing the system from women.