Skip to main content

Mind the Gap: Career and Financial Success for Women in Medicine

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Burnout in Women Physicians

Abstract

Career advancement and financial success for female physicians entail navigating gender norms (real and perceived) in a still male-dominated profession. The evidence demonstrates that female physicians are able to perform at the level of their male counterparts and that gender diversity increases the value and performance of organizations, yet women have not yet achieved the same level of opportunity and reward. In this chapter we will explore the success gaps, that which contributes to the gaps, and what men and women can do to close the gaps to ensure the freedom and opportunity to pursue personal and professional success.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Bulluck P. N.I.H. head calls for end to all-male panels of scientists. New York Times. 12 June 2019.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Manzoor M, Thompson K. Delivered by women, led by men: a gender and equity analysis of the Global Health and Social Workforce: World Health Organization; 3 Mar 2019. 60 p.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Heiser S. More women than men enrolled in U.S. medical schools in 2017: Association of American Medical Colleges; 2018 [updated December 18, 2017]. Available from: https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/press-releases/more-women-men-enrolled-us-medical-schools-2017.

  4. Overberg P, Adamy J, Thuy L, Ma J. What’s your pay gap? wsj.com: Wall Street Journal; 2016 [cited 2016 May 17]. Available from: http://graphics.wsj.com/gender-pay-gap/.

  5. Miller C. Pay gap is because of gender, not jobs. New York Times. 23 Apr 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Doximity 2019 physician compensation report: doximity. 2019. Available from: https://blog.doximity.com/articles/doximity-2019-physician-compensation-report-d0ca91d1-3cf1-4cbb-b403-a49b9ffa849f.

  7. Freund KM, Raj A, Kaplan SE, Terrin N, Breeze JL, Urech TH, et al. Inequities in academic compensation by gender: a follow-up to the National Faculty Survey Cohort Study. Acad Med. 2016;91(8):1068–73.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Warner AS, Lehmann LS. Gender wage disparities in medicine: time to close the gap. J Gen Intern Med. 2019;34(7):1334–6.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Newcomb A. Women’s earnings lower in most occupations 2018 [May 22]. Available from: https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2018/05/gender-pay-gap-in-finance-sales.html.

  10. Lo Sasso AT, Richards MR, Chou CF, Gerber SE. The $16,819 pay gap for newly trained physicians: the unexplained trend of men earning more than women. Health Aff. 2011;30(2):193–201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Carr PL, Raj A, Kaplan SE, Terrin N, Breeze JL, Freund KM. Gender differences in academic medicine: retention, rank, and leadership comparisons from the National Faculty Survey. Acad Med. 2018;93(11):1694–9.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Desai T, Ali S, Fang X, Thompson W, Jawa P, Vachharajani T. Equal work for unequal pay: the gender reimbursement gap for healthcare providers in the United States. Postgrad Med J. 2016;92(1092):571–5.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Baker LC. Differences in earnings between male and female physicians. N Engl J Med. 1996;334(15):960–4.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Pollart SM, Dandar V, Brubaker L, Chaudron L, Morrison LA, Fox S, et al. Characteristics, satisfaction, and engagement of part-time faculty at U.S. medical schools. Acad Med. 2015;90(3):355–64.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Foundation TP. Health Reform and the Decline of Physician Private Practice. A White Pater Examining the Effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on Physicians Practices in the United States: Merrit Hawkins; 2010. p. pp 116.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Arnett DK. Plugging the leaking pipeline: why men have a stake in the recruitment and retention of women in cardiovascular medicine and research. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2015;8(2 Suppl 1):S63–4.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Zenger J, Folkman J. Research: women score higher than men in most leadership skills. Harvard Business Review. 2019.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Murphy H. Picture a leader. Is she a woman? New York Times. 16 Mar 2018.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Rosenstein AH. Strategies to enhance physician engagement. J Med Pract Manage. 2015;31(2):113–6.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Valantine H, Sandborg CI. Changing the culture of academic medicine to eliminate the gender leadership gap: 50/50 by 2020. Acad Med. 2013;88(10):1411–3.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  21. Rotenstein L. Fixing the gender imbalance in healthcare leadership. Harvard Business Review. 2018.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Mangurian C, Linos E, Urminala S, Rodrigez C, Jagsi R. What is holding women in medicine back from leadership. Harvard Business Review. 2018.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Valantine HA, Grewal D, Ku MC, Moseley J, Shih MC, Stevenson D, et al. The gender gap in academic medicine: comparing results from a multifaceted intervention for Stanford faculty to peer and national cohorts. Acad Med. 2014;89(6):904–11.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Program on Neotiation HLS. Harvard University; 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Valerio A, Sawyer K. The men who mentor women. Harvard Business Review. 2016.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Turban S, Wu D, Letian LT. Research: When gender diversity makes firms more productive. Harvard Business Review. 2019.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Prince LA, Pipas L, Brown LH. Patient perceptions of emergency physicians: the gender gap still exists. J Emerg Med. 2006;31(4):361–4.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Tsugawa Y, Jena AB, Figueroa JF, Orav EJ, Blumenthal DM, Jha AK. Comparison of hospital mortality and readmission rates for medicare patients treated by male vs female physicians. JAMA Intern Med. 2017;177(2):206–13.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  29. Delgado A, Lopez-Fernandez LA, Luna JD. Influence of the doctor’s gender in the satisfaction of the users. Med Care. 1993;31(9):795–800.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. McMurray JE, Linzer M, Konrad TR, Douglas J, Shugerman R, Nelson K. The work lives of women physicians results from the physician work life study. The SGIM Career Satisfaction Study Group. J Gen Intern Med. 2000;15(6):372–80.

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  31. Files JA, Mayer AP, Ko MG, Friedrich P, Jenkins M, Bryan MJ, et al. Speaker introductions at internal medicine grand rounds: forms of address reveal gender bias. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2017;26(5):413–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Ruzycki SM, Fletcher S, Earp M, Bharwani A, Lithgow KC. Trends in the proportion of female speakers at medical conferences in the United States and in Canada, 2007 to 2017. JAMA Netw Open. 2019;2(4):e192103.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  33. Kuhlmann E, Ovseiko PV, Kurmeyer C, Gutierrez-Lobos K, Steinbock S, von Knorring M, et al. Closing the gender leadership gap: a multi-centre cross-country comparison of women in management and leadership in academic health centres in the European Union. Hum Resour Health. 2017;15(1):2.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  34. Jagsi R, Guancial EA, Worobey CC, Henault LE, Chang Y, Starr R, et al. The “gender gap” in authorship of academic medical literature – a 35-year perspective. N Engl J Med. 2006;355(3):281–7.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Jena AB, Olenski AR, Blumenthal DM. Sex differences in physician salary in US public medical schools. JAMA Intern Med. 2016;176(9):1294–304.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  36. Bates C, Gordon L, Travis E, Chatterjee A, Chaudron L, Fivush B, et al. Striving for gender equity in academic medicine careers: a call to action. Acad Med. 2016;91(8):1050–2.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  37. Dyrbye LN, Shanafelt TD, Balch CM, Satele D, Freischlag J. Physicians married or partnered to physicians: a comparative study in the American College of Surgeons. J Am Coll Surg. 2010;211(5):663–71.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. Jolly S, Griffith KA, DeCastro R, Stewart A, Ubel P, Jagsi R. Gender differences in time spent on parenting and domestic responsibilities by high-achieving young physician-researchers. Ann Intern Med. 2014;160(5):344–53.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  39. Ly DP, Jena AB. Sex differences in time spent on household activities and care of children among US physicians, 2003-2016. Mayo Clin Proc. 2018;93(10):1484–7.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Adesoye T, Mangurian C, Choo EK, Girgis C, Sabry-Elnaggar H, Linos E. Perceived discrimination experienced by physician mothers and desired workplace changes: a cross-sectional survey. JAMA Intern Med. 2017;177(7):1033–6.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  41. Riska E. Towards gender balance: but will women physicians have an impact on medicine? Soc Sci Med. 2001;52(2):179–87.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  42. Coe IR, Wiley R, Bekker LG. Organisational best practices towards gender equality in science and medicine. Lancet. 2019;393(10171):587–93.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  43. McNamee S, MIller R. The meritocracy myth. 2nd ed. Landham: Rowman & Littlefield; 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  44. Thomas K, Mack D, Mantagliani A. The arguments against diveristy: are they valid? In: Stockdale MS, Crosby FJ, editors. The psychology and management of workplace diversity. Malden: Blackwell Publishing; 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  45. Harris C. Whiteness as property. Harv Law Rev. 1993;106(8):1707–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Markovitz D. How life became an endless, terrible competition. The Atlantic. Sept 2019.

    Google Scholar 

  47. Kang SK, Kaplan S. Working toward gender diversity and inclusion in medicine: myths and solutions. Lancet. 2019;393(10171):579–86.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  48. Delgado A, Saletti-Cuesta L, Lopez-Fernandez LA, Toro-Cardenas S, Luna del Castillo J d D. Professional success and gender in family medicine: design of scales and examination of gender differences in subjective and objective success among family physicians. Eval Health Prof. 2016;39(1):87–99.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  49. Maji S, Dixit S. Self-silencing and women’s health: a review. Int J Soc Psychiatry. 2019;65(1):3–13.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  50. Kay K, Shipman C. The confidence gap. The Atlantic. 2014. pp. 56–66.

    Google Scholar 

  51. Menendez A. The likeability trap. Harper Business: New York; 2019. 256 p.

    Google Scholar 

  52. Rodriguez JE, Campbell KM, Pololi LH. Addressing disparities in academic medicine: what of the minority tax? BMC Med Educ. 2015;15:6.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  53. Fallin-Bennett K. Implicit bias against sexual minorities in medicine: cycles of professional influence and the role of the hidden curriculum. Acad Med. 2015;90(5):549–52.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  54. Frankel LP. Nice girls still don’t get the corner office. New York: Business Plus Books; 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  55. Zimmer L. Tokenism and women in the workplace: the limits of gender-neutral theory. Soc Probl. 1988;35(1):64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  56. Hu YY, Ellis RJ, Hewitt DB, Yang AD, Cheung EO, Moskowitz JT, et al. Discrimination, abuse, harassment, and burnout in surgical residency training. N Engl J Med. 2019;381(18):1741–52.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  57. Dampier C, Lieff S, LeBeau P, Rhee S, McMurray M, Rogers Z, et al. Health-related quality of life in children with sickle cell disease: a report from the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Centers Clinical Trial Consortium. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2010;55(3):485–94.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  58. Tarbox K. Is #MeToo backlash hurting women’s opportunities in finance? Harvard Business Review. 2018.

    Google Scholar 

  59. Brody DS, Miller SM, Lerman CE, Smith DG, Lazaro CG, Blum MJ. The relationship between patients’ satisfaction with their physicians and perceptions about interventions they desired and received. Med Care. 1989;27(11):1027–35.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  60. Martin A. Women benefit when they down play gender. In: Torres N, editor. Defend your research. Harvard Business Review; 2018.

    Google Scholar 

  61. Kanter R. Men and women of the corporation. New York: Basic Books; 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  62. Kanter R. A tale of “O” - on being different in an organization. New York: Harper Row; 1980.

    Google Scholar 

  63. Ibarra H, Carter N, Silva C. Why men still get more promotions than women. Harvard Business Review. 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  64. Johnson WB, Smith DG. How men can become better allies to women. Harvard Business Review. 2018.

    Google Scholar 

  65. Smith DG, Johnson B. Lots of men are gender-equality allies in private. Why not in public? Harvard Business Review. 2017.

    Google Scholar 

  66. Physicians Mom’s Group (PMG) [Available from: https://www.facebook.com/groups/PhysicianMomsGroup/.

  67. Bellock S. Research-based advise for women working in male-dominated fields. Harvard Business Review. 2019.

    Google Scholar 

  68. Zheng W, Kark R, Meister A. How women manage the gender norms of leadership. Harvard Business Review. 2018.

    Google Scholar 

  69. Ibarra H, Ely R, Kolb D. Educate everyone about second-generation gender bias. Harvard Business Review. 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  70. Wikipedia. Second-generation gender bias: Wikipedia; 2019. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-generation_gender_bias.

  71. Johnson SK, Hekman DR, Chan ET. If there’s only ONe woman in your candidate pool, there’s statistically no chance she’ll be hired. Harvard Business Review. 2016.

    Google Scholar 

  72. Hall WJ, Chapman MV, Lee KM, Merino YM, Thomas TW, Payne BK, et al. Implicit racial/ethnic bias among health care professionals and its influence on health care outcomes: a systematic review. Am J Public Health. 2015;105(12):e60–76.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  73. Gonzalez CM, Garba RJ, Liguori A, Marantz PR, McKee MD, Lypson ML. How to make or break implicit bias instruction: implications for curriculum development. Acad Med. 2018;93(11S Association of American Medical Colleges Learn Serve Lead: Proceedings of the 57th Annual Research in Medical Education Sessions):S74–81.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  74. Johnson SK, Davis K. CEO’s explain how they gender-balanced their boards. Harvard Business Review. 2017.

    Google Scholar 

  75. Bohnet I. How to take the bias out of interviews. Harvard Business Review. 2016.

    Google Scholar 

  76. Rivera L, Tilcsik A. One way to reduce gender bias in performance review. 2019.

    Google Scholar 

  77. Rotenstein L, Dudley JC. How to close the gender pay gap in U.S. medicine. Harvard Business Review. 2019.

    Google Scholar 

  78. Dermody SM, Litvack JR, Randall JA, Malekzadeh S, Maxwell JH. Compensation of otolaryngologists in the veterans health administration: is there a gender gap? Laryngoscope. 2019;129(1):113–8.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  79. Maxwell JH, Randall JA, Dermody SM, Hussaini A, Rao H, Nathan AS, et al., editors. Pay transparency among surgeons in the veterans health administration: closing the gender gap. American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress. 25 Oct 2019. San Francisco.

    Google Scholar 

  80. Villablanca AC, Beckett L, Nettiksimmons J, Howell LP. Career flexibility and family-friendly policies: an NIH-funded study to enhance women’s careers in biomedical sciences. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2011;20(10):1485–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  81. Shanafelt T, Goh J, Sinsky C. The business case for investing in physician well-being. JAMA Intern Med. 2017;177(12):1826–32.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  82. Royce TJ, Davenport KT, Dahle JM. A burnout reduction and wellness strategy: personal financial health for the medical trainee and early career radiation oncologist. Pract Radiat Oncol. 2019;9(4):231–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  83. J D. The White Coat Investor 2020. Available from: https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/.

  84. Physician on FIRE (Financial Independence and Retire Early), 2020. Available from: https://www.physicianonfire.com/.

  85. Koo B. Wealthy Mom MD. 2020.

    Google Scholar 

  86. Rohlfing J, Navarro R, Maniya OZ, Hughes BD, Rogalsky DK. Medical student debt and major life choices other than specialty. Med Educ Online. 2014;19:25603.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  87. Pisaniello MS, Asahina AT, Bacchi S, Wagner M, Perry SW, Wong ML, et al. Effect of medical student debt on mental health, academic performance and specialty choice: a systematic review. BMJ Open. 2019;9(7):e029980.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kristine D. Olson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Olson, K.D., Litvack, J.R. (2020). Mind the Gap: Career and Financial Success for Women in Medicine. In: Stonnington, C., Files, J. (eds) Burnout in Women Physicians. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44459-4_11

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44459-4_11

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-44458-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-44459-4

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics