Lack of women in medical research

Even though there are a good number of women in medicine, because of the work requirements of most fields and research, they usually go for specialties like general practice. According to a recent report by BMA Careers , the lack of women in medicine research is wasting public investment.

The Chief Medical Officer of England believes that the under-representation of women in researches is wasting available talent in the country. The co-author of the study, Dame Sally Davies, agrees and adds that some areas in medicine remain under researched because of this. The study further argues that even thought 53% of the medical students enrolling in colleges are female, yet, they are hardly any women involved in major researches.

Sarah Stewart-Brown, BMA’s staff committee’s group chair praised the study for bringing the issue into the limelight and pointing out the unconscious discrimination. She added, “The lack of women participating in the clinical academic research system is likely to be implicitly biasing today’s research agenda and, by consequence, tomorrow’s clinical practice.”  Offering a solution to the problem she further says, “The adoption and embedding of gender-neutral policies, for example flexible working, will be of benefit to all clinical academics whether women or men.”

Medical Careers>

Dame Sally also pointed out that programmes like Athena Swan address gender bias, and similar programmes should be introduced.  Dr. Steward-Brown didn’t fully agree and pointed out that even though the programme dealt with the issue in STEM fields, it failed to distinguish between female scientists and female clinical academics.

Lead author and King’s College London policy institute director Jonathan Grant said that the inequality in the field was noted to increase with seniority with only 15% female professors in Medical schools across UK.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: BMA Careers

http://bma.org.uk/news-views-analysis/news/2014/july/lack-of-women-in-research-costs-society-says-report