If there is one industry sector that is largely dominated by women, it certainly has to be healthcare & medicine. It is no longer news that women have been outnumbering their male counterparts when it comes to enrollment in medicine & allied science UG courses. In the past 3-4 years, the percentage of women enrolling for post graduate courses in the field of medicine has also witnessed a sharp rise, outnumbering men.
The number of women enrolling in medical courses also translates in their participation in the healthcare workforce. Globally, women represent close to 71 percent of the global healthcare workforce (2021) as suggested by the Lancet medical journal. In India, over 30 percent of doctors and 80 percent of nursing staff/midwives are women.
While both men and women progress equally in the early years of their careers, it is disheartening to note that women are five times more likely to face challenges in their career journeys. Women are also more likely to get their medical degrees, but not practice as doctors. The number of women drops drastically as we go up the leadership ladder.
This is an ubiquitous trend we see across all geographies and industries. The underlying causes are surprisingly similar irrespective of the location or nature of industry.
Women suffer owing to being underpayed (unpaid in several cases), gender bias & harassment prevalent in most working setups and lack of support systems at home & in industry. Women in the healthcare industry earn approximately 28 percent lesser than their male counterparts.
At this point, it is important to understand why we need more women to hold leadership positions in the healthcare sector. Primarily, the gender gap indirectly affects women's health and causes healthcare inequality.
Getting more women in the healthcare workforce is a key step in making healthcare more accessible to a larger number of women. It has also been established by various credible studies that having more women in leadership positions is beneficial to the organizational performance.
Not only does it positively impact productivity at work, but also helps in maximizing the potential of the female workforce. A diverse leadership team can successfully incorporate the intricacies of our social fabric into the resultant policies and systems.
Ultimately, having more women in the workforce & leadership roles makes monetary sense. It is estimated that with an equal participation from the female workforce, we could achieve close to $160 trillion rise in the global GDP.
Isn't that food for thought?
