Opinion: Women in medicine are held back by gendered ageism
Women may make up half of all medical students, but the number of mid-career and senior-career women physicians is disproportionately small.
Though women make up more than half of medical students, they remain underrepresented in health care leadership: Women comprise just 29% of full professors, 25% of department chairs, 27% of deans, and 25% of health care CEOs. Among the reasons for this imbalance are the systemic barriers that sideline women out of the workforce. In some specialties, women leave the profession up to 12 years earlier than men.
At professional meetings, the discussion often turns to the root causes for why women physicians leave medicine: salary inequities, decreased rates of promotion, fewer sponsorship opportunities, lack of psychological safety, for example. There is often mention of environments permissive of workplace violence, bullying, toxic colleagues and sexual harassment. The high rates of burnout, moral injury and death by suicide are increasingly discussed.
