medicine has been a male-dominated profession because it
demands long working hours that are disadvantageous to
women who, even today , struggle to juggle career and family
responsibilities.
The paper noted that though women were earlier largely
restricted to fields like obstetrics, gynaecology and paediatrics,
this was changing. “There has always been a preponderance
of women in preclinical subjects like anatomy, physiology and
biochemistry and paraclinical subjects like pharmacology ,
pathology and microbiology rights from the ‘70s. However, when
a department is headed by a woman, the percentage of women
faculty in the department goes up. In departments headed by
women the women faculty was 49% as compared to just 19% in
those headed by men,“ says Dr Chadda, giving the example of
the neurology department in AIIMS, which saw a lot of woman
faculty joining when the HOD was a woman. “It is probably
because the head of the department becomes a role model and
more women are encouraged to join,“ said Dr Chadda.
There are skews within the medical profession in most parts
of the world with some medical specialties,
such as surgery and other disciplines requiring
emergency duty with irregular hours, being
male-dominated. Even in the UK, though
women account for over 56% of those opting
for medical education, 44% are pediatricians,
49% are in public health and only 8% are
surgeons, according to a Royal College of
Physicians report.
Among the OECD countries, in 10, predominantly from the
erstwhile Eastern Bloc, the proportion of female physicians is
more than 50%, ranging from a high 73.8% in Estonia to 50.2%
in Spain. In two non-OECD countries for which the OECD had
data, Latvia and Lithuania, females accounted for over 74% and
70% of physicians. In contrast, only one in five doctors in Japan
and Korea were women. In the US, it is one in three.Source: MCI. No data from 58 colleges in 2010-11, 38 in 2011-12, 39 in 2012-13 and 5 in 2013-14More women studying
medicine, but your doctor
still likely to be a man
T
he first Indian woman physician, Anandibai Joshi, graduated
in 1886. About 125 years later, Indian women started to
outnumber men in admissions to medical colleges and the trend
continues to grow stronger by the year: over the last five years, India
has produced over 4,500 more female doctors than male ones.
In India, women constituted 51% of the students joining
medical colleges, cornering 23,522 seats in 2014-15 compared
to 22,934 men. This increase is in keeping with the worldwide
trend. In fact, in the neighbourhood, Pakistan and Bangladesh
have much higher proportions of women in medical colleges,
70% and 60% respectively.
However, there is a serious shortage of female doctors in
India. According to a paper titled Human Resources for Health
in India, published in 2011 in the medical journal Lancet, only
17% of all allopathic doctors and 6% of those in rural areas are
women. This is less than one female allopathic doctor per 10,000
population in rural areas (0.5), whereas the ratio is 6.5 in urban
areas. The number of female doctors per 10,000 population
ranges from 7.5 in Chandigarh to 0.26 in Bihar.
According to a paper on women in medicine
published in the journal, Indian Anthropologist,
by sociologist Dr Mita Bhadra, the gender gap
persists at the post- graduation and doctoral levels-
the percentage of female doctors here is around
one-third of male doctors. She also observed
that positions of leadership in academics and
administration are still mostly occupied by men.
In Pakistan, though 70% of medical students
were women, only 23% of registered doctors were female because
a large number of those who graduated never took to practising.
Bangladesh produced 3,164 female doctors and just 2,383 male
doctors in 2013. The trend of more women joining the medical
profession is welcomed as female doctors are seen as more
committed and caring.
A paper on women in medicine published by Dr Rakesh
Chadda and Dr Mamta Sood of the psychiatry department
of AIIMS in the Indian Journal of Gender Studies noted that
Half of Students joining
medical colleges are women,
reduces to one-third at PG
and doctoral levelThere is a serious
shortage of female
doctors in India. Only
17% of all allopathic
doctors and 6% of those
in rural areas are womennnCourtesy : The Times of IndiaMedical College admissions