The American College of Physicians (ACP) has published a list of recommendations aimed at ending gender disparities in medicine for compensation and career advancement, as well as calling on healthcare organizations to provide a minimum of six weeks paid leave for physicians, residents and medical students.
Persistent gender gaps in physician pay have been well documented. In 2017, Medscape said women made 16 percent less than men on average for primary care and 37 percent less for specialists. Among the internists represented by ACP, female physicians were paid on average $16,000 less than their male counterparts. Disparities extend to leadership positions, lead authors in medical journals and presenters at major conferences despite women making up a growing share of the physician population and a majority of medical school enrollees.
“ACP published this paper to not only highlight the obstacles that our female members face, but also to identify solutions to the very real barriers women in medicine deal with every day,” ACP president Jack Ende, MD, said in a press release. “As an organization, we are committed to acknowledging, and addressing, the unique challenges female physicians must confront over the course of their careers so that the internal medicine community is able to benefit from the full potential of female physicians in the workforce.”
The paper from ACP’s Health and Public Policy Committee laid out eight positions for the organization to achieve gender equity, including:
- Affirming physician compensation should be equitable and “based on comparable work at each stage of physicians' professional careers,” not personal characteristics like gender. ACP also stated physicians shouldn’t be penalized for working less than full-time.
- Supporting “routine assessment of the equity of physician compensation arrangements by all organizations that employ physicians.”
- Supporting a minimum of six weeks paid leave from employers, with family, medical and paid leave recommended to be a “standard part” of all physicians’ benefit packages. ACP said these policies shouldn’t be based on “reproductive status,” making them available to physicians who have children biologically or through adoption as well as those who don’t have children. It also extended these recommendations to residencies, fellowships and medical schools to care for children, including newly adopted kids, and well as to care for seriously ill family members.
- Supporting “the provision of programs in leadership development, negotiation and career development for all physicians and physicians-in-training.”
- Addressing “implicit bias” through training and organizational policies.
- Urging organizations which employ physicians to increase the number of women in leadership positions, including adopting gender diversity policies and requiring the inclusion of female physicians on search committees and as job candidates.
- Conducting further research on the underlying causes and impact on gender disparities for pay and promotions among physicians.
- Opposing any harassment, discrimination and retaliation based on “characteristics of personal identity,” including gender.
Progress has been made on ending these inequities, the ACP paper said, but for the benefit of those female physicians and the patients they serve, a greater effort was required to eliminate persistent gender disparities.
“A concerted effort must be made to eliminate the imbalance in compensation and career advancement opportunities and provide a more inclusive environment to realize the full potential of all physicians in the workforce,” the ACP paper concluded.
John joined TriMed in 2016, focusing on healthcare policy and regulation. After graduating from Columbia College Chicago, he worked at FM News Chicago and Rivet News Radio, and worked on the state government and politics beat for the Illinois Radio Network. Outside of work, you may find him adding to his never-ending graphic novel collection.