The American College of Physicians (ACP) published a position paper with recommendations for eliminating disparities between male and female physicians in terms of compensation and professional advancement.
Published April 17 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the paper cites eight crucial measures for achieving these goals. Female physicians earned an average of $105,000 less than their male counterparts in 2017, according to one survey, despite outpacing men in medical school enrollment for the first time.
Among the ACP’s recommendations:
- Avoid penalizing physicians who work less than full-time.
- Provide at least six weeks of paid family leave as part of all physicians’ benefit packages, regardless of “reproductive status” or whether a child is had biologically or through adoption.
- Address gender bias through training and organizational policies.
- Include all physicians in leadership development programs.
- Implement diversity policies requiring female physicians be included on search committees and considered as job candidates.
“ACP published this paper to not only highlight the obstacles that our female members face, but also to identify solutions to the very real barriers women in medicine deal with every day,” ACP president Jack Ende, MD, said in a press release. “As an organization, we are committed to acknowledging, and addressing, the unique challenges female physicians must confront over the course of their careers so that the internal medicine community is able to benefit from the full potential of female physicians in the workforce.”
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Daniel joined TriMed’s Chicago editorial team in 2017 as a Cardiovascular Business writer. He previously worked as a writer for daily newspapers in North Dakota and Indiana.