Recent online and offline movements like #MeToo and #TimesUp have made women’s issues a big part of the public agenda once again. The obstacles that women face worldwide as part of their daily life captured the thoughts of millions around the world as these movements grew. While #MeToo deals with sexual assault and harassment, #TimesUp deals with justice and equity in the workplace. What do they have in common? They provide proof of the changes that took place in the global consciousness, as people everywhere started to think about issues that affect women on a personal or professional level. Healthcare is no exception.
Healthcare is not a trivial problem for Americans. In fact, a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal Survey proved that it is the most important factor in deciding the vote for the November 2018 elections. And while healthcare policies may influence the vote, it is women who vote the most when it comes to healthcare issues. Women are the primary healthcare decision makers for their households, serving as 66% of all caregivers. But they do not have an equal voice in the American healthcare system, according to a Rock Health report.
A Room of One’s Own
As Virginia Woolf said long ago, women need a literal and figurative space of their own in order to achieve success within industries formerly dominated by men. But have women managed to build their own room in healthcare and, if so, is it properly furnished? The data provided by the Rock Health report seems to imply that progress has been made, but gender discrimination still thrives in the healthcare industry. Women might be the primary healthcare decision makers in America, but no woman serves as CEO of a Fortune 500 healthcare company and only 22.1% of the board members of these companies are women.
Considering the numbers and the slow rate of change in the industry it comes as no surprise that women are pessimistic about the future. Nearly half of the respondents of the Rock Health survey said that it will take 25 or more years until gender parity will become a reality in the healthcare sector. Is there a reason for hope? Digital health startups might be one, as this particular sector has provided the industry with a formidable increase in gender equality over the last few years. 24% of the CEOs of digital health companies founded in 2016 are women, compared to only 9.7% in 2011.
You Get What You Paid For
According to the Medscape Physician Compensation Report, the most extensive physician salary survey in the US, physician pay is on the rise, but so is the gender pay gap in the sector. This is just one of the problems affecting women physicians in the US. They, in turn, have 1.6 times the odds of fighting burnout compared with their male colleagues. Depression also affects women within the medical workforce more than male physicians and the suicide rate among female physicians is 2.27 times greater than the general female population. The suicide rate among male physicians is just 1.41 times higher.
But what about the patients? Researchers have recently found that women are more likely to survive a heart attack if they are treated by a female physician. The study reveals that while female patients have a higher mortality rate if they are treated by male physicians, male and female patients experience a similar outcome when treated by female physicians. Some may argue that the study only examined heart attack patients. But a similar study found that all patients treated by female doctors had significantly lower mortality and readmission rates compared with those cared for by male physicians within the same hospital.
The primary decision-maker in healthcare is female and the future of the industry might also be female. Even though women are underrepresented in leadership positions across the healthcare sector, companies with a higher percentage of female leaders are better rated by their employees. So while women in healthcare are more and more pessimistic about the future, the future seems to be in need of female leaders. Movements like #MeToo and #TimesUp have provided women everywhere with a strong voice, but the future might be even brighter if women have a chance to leave their mark on the healthcare industry.
