International Women’s Day 2020 – We have a long way to go to reach gender equality in healthcare

This International Women’s Day 2020 we highlight some of the opportunities for improved gender equality in healthcare

1. Women make up the significant majority of healthcare professionals in the UK but only c. 35% of senior managers and consultants are women

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/judy-taylor-gender-diversity-in-the-public-sector-nov13.pdf

2. Women in medicine are not treated equally with men by colleagues or patients

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/03/women-in-medicine-are-not-given-the-respect-they-deserve-from-their-male-colleagues-or-patients

3. The different symptoms that women experience compared to men for conditions such as heart attacks sometimes lead to women waiting longer for diagnosis and appropriate treatment

https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/conditions/heart-attack/women-and-heart-attacks

4. Men and women have very different biologies yet doctors often prescribe the same medications and dosages to everyone regardless of gender

https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/should-medicine-be-gendered/

5. Male and female physiologies are very different yet research is disproportionately focused on male athletes

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6531503067790139392/

6. Research shows that doctors treat women’s reports of symptoms and pain less seriously than they do men’s

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/26/gender-pain-gap-doctors-women-healthcare

Of course, there are also lots of ways in which men’s health lags behind women’s (male suicide and many chronic health conditions). We’ll talk about those on International Men’s Day on 19th November.