Abstract
BackgroundAlthough the proportion of women in medicine is growing, female physicians continue to be disadvantaged in professional activities. The purpose of the study was to determine and compare the professional activities of female and male primary care physicians in Andalusia and to assess the effect of the health center on the performance of these activities.MethodsDescriptive, cross-sectional, and multicenter study. Setting: Spain. Participants: Population: urban health centers and their physicians. Sample: 88 health centers and 500 physicians. Independent variable: gender. Measurements: Control variables: age, postgraduate family medicine specialty (FMS), patient quota, patients/day, hours/day housework from Monday to Friday, idem weekend, people at home with special care, and family situation. Dependent variables: 24 professional activities in management, teaching, research, and the scientific community. Self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive, bivariate, and multilevel logistic regression analyses.ResultsResponse: 73.6%. Female physicians: 50.8%. Age: female physicians, 49.1 ± 4.3 yrs; male physicians, 51.3 ± 4.9 yrs (p < 0.001). Female physicians with FMS: 44.2%, male physicians with FMS: 33.3% (p < 0.001). Female physicians dedicated more hours to housework and more frequently lived alone versus male physicians. There were no differences in healthcare variables. Thirteen of the studied activities were less frequently performed by female physicians, indicating their lesser visibility in the production and diffusion of scientific knowledge. Performance of the majority of professional activities was independent of the health center in which the physician worked.ConclusionsThere are gender inequities in the development of professional activities in urban health centers in Andalusia, even after controlling for family responsibilities, work load, and the effect of the health center, which was important in only a few of the activities under study.
Highlights
The proportion of women in medicine is growing, female physicians continue to be disadvantaged in professional activities
Personal and professional control variables were: age; postgraduate family medicine specialty (FMS); work load in November 2007, measured as age-adjusted patient list size and mean number of patients/day attended at the surgery; family load, measured as hours/day devoted to housework from Monday to Friday, hours/day devoted to housework on Saturdays and Sundays, and presence or not at home of individuals needing special care; and family situation, categorized either as living alone with/without children or as living in any other domestic situation
Comparison of the four personal variables obtained in all enrolled physicians showed no differences between respondents and non-respondents except that health center managers were more likely than non-managers to be respondents (Table 1)
Summary
The proportion of women in medicine is growing, female physicians continue to be disadvantaged in professional activities. In our regional health system, 68% of the health personnel were female in 2007 but only occupied 34% of management posts were held by women (37% in the primary care [PC] sector) [4]. Female physicians are poorly represented on the governing bodies of scientific societies [6,7,8] and any presence is frequently in a secondary position [7]. They appear to face barriers in the leadership of research projects [9] and the publication of scientific papers [7,10,11,12]. Despite the increased number of female physicians, they do not appear able to develop career-enhancing activities under conditions of equality with their male counterparts [9,13]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
