Women's Leadership Development at the Yale School of Medicine: Preliminary Evaluation of an Innovative Program

Background: Despite strong data indicating women leaders' proven efficacy as catalysts for organizational change, there is significant attrition for women across the advancement, promotion, and leadership pathways within academic medicine. To help early-career women faculty build a network of support, enhance leadership capacity and agility, and gain the skills necessary for career advancement and fulfillment, we created the Women's Leadership Development Program (WLDP) at our medical school in 2020.Methods: From 2023 to 2024, we collected retrospective survey data from all interested prior participants to gauge the impact of the WLDP on faculty members' confidence, sense of belonging at Yale School of Medicine, and acquisition of leadership skills.Results: Findings indicate the WLDP's positive impact on women faculty members' sense of leadership efficacy and skills, with participants reporting enhanced appreciation of their leadership potential, knowing how to lead with their strengths, improved leadership vision, and increased confidence in making an impact in academic medicine going forward.Conclusion: The importance of leadership development programming for the professional development of early-career women faculty in academic medicine is explored. The article concludes with implications of these findings for our ongoing programming and leadership development initiatives for women in academic medicine more broadly.