Gender bias alive and well in medicine

A female surgeon's study shows doctors of both genders hold implicit and explicit biases
Reuters Health
Dr Arghavan Salles
Dr Arghavan Salles.

Healthcare professionals, including doctors, of both genders are more likely to associate the word ‘career’ with men and ‘family’ with women, a US study reveals.

Furthermore, surgeons broadly see surgery as a man’s career and family medicine as a woman’s field, report the researchers, led by a female surgeon who says she carried out the research on the back of her own experiences of gender bias.

It’s important to be aware of such stereotyping and gender biases among doctors and other healthcare professionals to prevent potentially negative effect, says the team from Washington University in St Louis, Missouri.

They analysed the results of 43,000 healthcare professionals’ responses to a ‘gender-career’ association test taken over a 10-year period.