Urgent action is needed to address gender barriers to careers in medical research and teaching, according to the British Medical Association's Women in Academic Medicine study. A preliminary report following a survey of 1,162 clinical academics states that men are much more likely than women to receive encouragement from senior colleagues to apply for promotion (43 to 38 per cent), to know about the processes (77 to 61 per cent) and to be on grant giving panels (30 to 20 per cent).