Female Smile-Keepers of the Society

All professions and mainly the health care profession are in a continual state of self-assessment in order to improve patient health, increase efficiency in the health care system, and ultimately enhance society as a whole. This evolution is more than afact for the dental profession,which presentsultimate opportunities for both women and men to come forward, work together and gains the status together as health care providers.Dentistry clearly shows the elevation of women in academic as well as clinical dentistry and in most industrialized countries, there has been a steady increase in the proportion of women in the dentist workforce over the last 25 years.Among the dental students in India, almost 50-60 percent of them in all Indian dental schools are female. And about 15 percent of the deans in dental colleges in India are women, which forms a segment of 25 percent women working as dentists in the present time.

Challenges being a Female Clinician

Though Dentistry welcomes more female clinicians with open hands, female dentists in India continue to face the need to balance their careers because of the societal expectation and personal responsibilities of marriage, homemaking, and child rearing. Additionally, female clinicians are less likely than men to own a clinic or take post-graduate qualifications and the average annual income of full-time, self-employed women was 37 percent lower than the income of full-time, self-employed men, which clearly demonstrates the persistence of the gender wage gap. abig portion of females take career break than males, and such breaks tends to follow lower working hours after returning to practice. On average, female dentists have also been found to retire earlier than male dentists and work fewer hours per week than male dentists, thus having an impact on professions productivity. Hence, there is a need for better understanding of the women dentist's attitude towards balancing their professional, personal, and social responsibilities to in order to increase the profession productivity.

Our endeavour at Women Entrepreneur Magazine has always been to highlight remarkable women leaders across geographies and industries. In keeping with our motto, the current issue of the Women Entrepreneur Magazine features a list of ‘Top 10 Women Dentists- 2023'. Compiled by a panel of industry veterans, CEOs, CXOs and the Women Entrepreneur Magazine editorial team, the list features prolific women who have not only crafted illustrious and innovative businesses, but have proven their mettle as leaders across the diverse businesses playing a key role in contributing towards strengthening the workforce.