work for advancement can be built into the
fabric of the systems. Some supports include
peer mentoring, leadership development
workshops, networking, administrative support,
and intentional sponsorship.
7. Pay Gap
Female physicians are consistently compensated
less than their male counterparts.
The inequitable pay results in a wide gap of
annual earnings, savings, and total income
across a career span.
Physician compensation is also closely
linked to specialty choice. Female physicians
are less likely to go into higher-paying specialties,
such as surgical subspecialties, and
more likely to serve in lower-paying but more
mission-driven work, such as primary care and
pediatrics, which further widens the pay gap
in medicine. This pay gap is again perpetuated
by limited advancement to leadership
and promotion due to all the aforementioned
barriers.
Aside from all the above factors, at the
very outset of their careers, women physicians
start out with salaries lower than their male
counterparts for the same work and roles. As
such, transparency in salaries and systemwide
annual salary reviews are critical to revealing
and addressing disparities in physician pay.
As noted above, it is also imperative that
organizations review compensation in a
way that considers the necessary but often
uncompensated contributions of women physicians
to make pay and advancement practices
more equitable. This would consider, for
example, an increased amount of time spent
with patients, which translates to higher quality
of care, patient satisfaction, and improved
clinical outcomes.
8. Gender Bias in Medicine
Biases based on gendered stereotypes
can negatively aff ect the careers of female
physicians. Healthcare systems can play a
critical role in mitigating these biases through
a variety of interventions, as outlined above.
Foremost, however, should be an institutional
commitment to gender equity and inclusion
in the workplace with built-in systems of
accountability. This can be achieved through
third-party, unbiased reviews of the institutional
climate and transparency about the
organization’s eff orts. There should also be
clear and safe reporting mechanisms in place
for those who experience or witness bias, free
from retaliation.
The healthcare system has struggled with
retaining female physicians, particularly since
the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The inequities
facing female physicians both at work
and at home have resulted in challenges that
have made it diffi cult for many to continue at
the same level of work, resulting in opting for
decreased work hours or opting to leave the
workplace entirely. With data clearly demonstrating
the vital importance of retaining
female physicians in all areas of medicine and
medical leadership, it’s a moral imperative for
leaders and healthcare institutions to address
all areas of inequity to encourage the female
physician workforce to remain and to thrive.
DMJ
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10 | DALLAS MEDICAL JOURNAL • May 2022