More women than men study medicine – but only a few of them make it to the executive floors of clinics. Why is that? One star-Research shows: Conservative and male-dominated work environments make it difficult for women to advance. This is a problem – also for the patients.
Let’s start with a riddle: A father and his son are in a car accident. The father dies on the spot. The son is taken to the hospital. The surgical team is ready. But suddenly someone from the group says: “I can’t operate on this boy. He’s my son!”
How can that be?
This puzzle is more than 50 years old. And still very few come up with the solution: It is not a man who does not see himself in a position to operate, but a woman, the boy’s mother. When students in the USA pondered the question of surgery in 2021, not even a third of them thought of a female surgeon – the stereotype of the male doctor runs deep. It still contributes to the fact that there are hardly any female doctors in the executive floors of clinics and in the chairs of universities – although there should actually be a swarm of them.
sex and treatment success
For more than 20 years, more women have been studying medicine than men. But hardly any of them make it to the top. Where the course for the future is set, where the next generation is selected, where decisions are made about work culture and patient care. On their way to the top, female doctors encounter men who prefer to support men, prejudice and day-care centers that close at 4 p.m. “In hardly any other subject is the difference in the gender ratio between studies and management level as big as it is here,” says Gabriele Kaczmarczyk, a doctor for six decades. And that’s bad for society. If only men determine what medicine is made and what research is done, then a system designed to ensure the health of all suffers. The demand for more medical decision-makers, for a new distribution of power, is therefore not just a question of equality. It is a question that concerns everyone who becomes a patient at some point in their life. Anyone who wants better medicine.
Source: Stern
I’m Caroline, a journalist and author for 24 Hours Worlds. I specialize in health-related news and stories, bringing real-world impact to readers across the globe. With my experience in journalism and writing in both print and online formats, I strive to provide reliable information that resonates with audiences from all walks of life.
