Women outnumber men in medical school

According to 2017 statistics courtesy of the Association of American Medical Colleges, women currently represent 50.7% of the 21,000 medical school enrollees. In fact, the number of women applying to medical school has risen by more than 9% since 2015, compared to the 2.3% decline in male applicants.

Only one-third of physicians in the US are women. Kimberly Templeton, MD, past president for the American Medical Women’s Association, anticipates that, as more women enter the field, more conversations will take place on issues affecting women in healthcare. She especially hopes that instances of sexual harassment by colleagues and patients will garner more attention and lead to stringent consequences.         

Templeton is quick to point out that burnout tends to occur more frequently in women physicians because they are also more likely to take on the demands of family caregiving.                                                                        

“There are things that fit into a much broader definition of sexual harassment—the microaggressions, the denigration of someone’s capabilities based on their sex or gender, and the gender-bias, all fit within a newer, broader definition of sexual harassment that [is] much more common,” Templeton says.

Source: Modern Healthcare