Women are Underrepresented in All Aspects of the Medical Profession

Source: www.learnvest.com

Statistically, women in the medical profession have a completely different experience than men in the same profession. On the basis of gender, women are get less pay and are underrepresented in specialties which pay more. The Center For Research On Gender in the Professions in “Medical Professions: The Status of Women and Men” illustrate how women are underrepresented and face disparities in all aspects of the medical field including education, medical practice and academic medicine.

As far as education goes, the percentage of medical degrees earned by women has increased significantly. In 1952, only 5% of medical degrees were earned by women, however, in 2011 this number had risen to 48%. This rise may be due to the increase in women’s rights in the past few decades, as well as increasing or more diverse attitudes towards women. In my opinion, it seems as time goes on society becomes more liberalized, which may contribute to people’s increased attitudes towards the rights of women over time. Similarly, more and more women continue to shy away from domestic work which also contributes to why so many women are now earning medical degrees and participating in other professions as well.

While the increased amount of women participating in the medical profession is beneficial to society in a multitude of ways, how women are treated in this profession does not reflect this. Based on statistics, women are plagued by a gender pay gap and segregation of specialties. Women are less likely to have ownership or part ownership of a practice, and are also less less likely in comparison to men to be surgeons. In 2004, 59% of male physicians owned at least part of a practice compared to only 41% of women. Furthermore, women have the highest representation in the pediatrics field at 55%, however this is one of the lowest paying fields of medicine. In relation to this, in 2005 women represented only “ 6% of (…)orthopedic, thoracic, urological and neurological surgeons” (Medical Professions). While there has been a rise of women in the medical profession over the past few decades, women have not yet reached true equality and representative equity in comparison to men. It is interesting to me how women end up in lower paying specialties and I would like to further investigate why this occurs.

Lastly, women are consistently underrepresented in academic medicine. In 2007, only 14 out of 124 medical school deans were women, Similarly, as the deans are picked by department chairs, only 10 women were medical school department chairs. Furthermore, the majority of medical school professors are men. This disparity of women at the academic level may be the most threatening to women in the medical profession. If more women were represented in academic medicine, more change could be brought to the minds of medical students in regards to their attitudes towards women in the medical field. A lack of female professors means that both men and women are lacking the female perspective in their medical studies which could be detrimental to how the medical profession progresses in regards to female equality.

Future Research: Why women end up in specialties that pay less. Or do the specialties just pay less because it is women dominated? How does childbearing affect a woman's medical career?