4 AUGUST2022Editor NoteWomen More Likely To Get Medical Degrees but Not Practice as Doctors Since years women have been an integral and crucial part of the global healthcare and medicine industry. It is also one of the few sectors where women's representation is almost at par with their male counterparts. Women have also been outnumbering menin terms of enrolling in medicine & allied science UG courses in India. In the past three to four years, the percentage of women signing up for post graduate courses in the field of medicine has seen a sharp rise, outnumbering men. This phenomenon has a direct impact on the number of women joining the healthcare workforce. In 2021, women made up close to 71 percent of the global healthcare workforce as suggested by the Lancet medical journal. More than 30 percent of doctors and 80 percent of nursing staff/midwives in India are also female. However, as we progress up the ladder, women's representation falls drastically. Studies suggest that women are five times more likely to face challenges in their career journeys in the healthcare sector. Women are also more likely to get their medical degrees but not practice as doctors. There is also a gaping dearth in the number of women surgeons globally and in India as well. According to statistics made public by the American Medical Association only 19 percent of surgeons in the US are women. Closer home in India an Annual meeting of Associations of Surgeons (2017) found that of the total 25,000 surgeons in India, only 700 were women. The society of surgeons which has a total membership of 12,700 had just 300 female members. It is a common lived experience among aspiring women surgeons that `surgery' is still a quintessential `boys club'. Merit does not play a larger factor here, but it is the structural issues in educational and medical institutions that are the culprit behind the lack of women surgeons. Women have to deal with challenges such as gender pay gap, gender bias & harassment which is prevalent in most working setups. It comes as no surprise that women in the healthcare industry earn approximately 28 percent lesser than their male counterparts. There is also a lack of support systems at home & within the industry. The case for having a diverse and inclusive workforce across all industry sectors has long been made. It's about time we come up with effective action plans and work towards closing the gender gap in the Indian healthcare sector. Read on do let us know your thoughts. Rachita SharmaManaging Editor
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