One thing that can close gender gap and, it is controlled by women

NEWCASTLE, Australia, Nov. 21, 2018 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Sachin Joshi, a Healthcare entrepreneur, Business Coach and Gender Equality Advocate observes that gender gap (in work environment) exists at three levels, even in many developed countries. USA ranks 45^th, United Kingdom 20^th, Canada 35^th, and Australia at 46^th, while New Zealand is 9^th, and Iceland 1^st, followed by Finland 2^nd, Norway 3^rd, Sweden 4^th, and Ireland 5^th.

Anyone would think that gender gap would be less in white collar professions. However, it is interesting to observe that compared to other professions, gender gap is more apparent in one of the most sought after and education based professions- Healthcare. In Healthcare / Medicine, three levels of gap are found across professional opportunities, pay and leadership positions. 

Based on Sachin's extensive industry experience, he thinks there is one dominant reason for this.

In this article, Sachin is discussing (reasons for) gender gap in pay and profession, and not gender gap in health outcomes which unfortunately exists.

Let's look at 3 levels of gender gap.

Gap at professional level- To a pleasant surprise, in 2017, RACGP published a survey announcing that the female General Practitioners outnumbered their male colleagues for the first time in Australia, with 973 more registered female GPs than males. Similar is trend in UK. On the other side however, female doctors are increasingly hitting the glass ceiling. Female doctors still remain under-represented in the formal leadership positions and particular specialty areas, especially in the surgical branches like Orthopaedic, Vascular and Cardio-thoracic surgery. Women constitute to only 12% of surgeons in Australia, rising from 8.5% in 2011. Similar gender gap trends are evident in UK, Canada and USA.

Gap at pay level- As per the article published in the Guardian, the annual gross personal earnings for female specialists where on average 16% less than their male counterparts and female GPs earned 25% less than the male GPs. In USA, male physicians earned about 25% more than their female counterparts, widening the gap from 16% in 2000. Similar findings are also reported in a research summarised in a Harvard Business Review article. Such pay gap is of more concern given that both genders go through the same training and take similar risks.

Gap in leadership positions- Gender gap is more prevalent in leadership roles. In USA, women are accounted for only 18% of hospital CEOs and 16% of Deans and Department heads as per Harvard Business Review article- 'What is holding women back from leadership'. In absence of data in this area, it is fair to assume similar gap at this level in Australia and other developed countries.

Lots of evidence suggests that women are more intellectually capable and credible than their male counterparts. Recent studies show that women physicians provide better clinical care, practice more evidence based medicine, communicate better and deliver more healthcare system savings in comparison with the male counterparts and also are more collaborative in research and education pursuits.

So what is holding women back?

In Sachin's opinion, apart from maternal bias (i.e. more family responsibility that is assumed on women) the main reason for these three level gender gap lies in the 'active interest (or lack of it) towards business skills / responsibilities' by women (doctors). What is meant by business skills is - skills of commercial, non-clinical nature or enterprise skills.

Men actively seek such skills/responsibilities and hence are less affected by adverse effects of job loss than women, as an example.

"No doubt women have an equal or higher sense of business skills compared to men", Sachin believes. However, the question remains - How many of them are actively interested in cultivating those skills? How many women value these skills equally important as other skills? How many women feel it is a must to have these skills? How many female doctors actively aspire/ pursue such responsibilities? That percentage is certainly lower than male counterparts for some reasons, (of course, with some exceptions). 

In interaction with many female doctors and clients, Sachin has observed that they put lesser priority on dealing with business related 'stuff' like- understanding money matters, dealing with staff issues, managing commercial aspects of their profession or personal life. For some unknown reason, they still see such business aspects as 'male domain'.

Sachin strongly believes that, 'If women in medicine can take an active interest in developing their business / commercial/ non-clinical skills, e.g. Finance, Marketing, People management, they will close gender gap at all three levels, or may even surpass it, as they have done in other sectors'.  

"And taking such interest ? the one thing that can close gender gap- is the choice controlled by women, there is nothing stopping them from acquiring such skills", he points out.

Sachin is doing further research into 'why women (doctors) are less active / interested in pursuing such business skills?'

An Activist and Educator Sachin is owner of medical centres and has trained many doctors in getting on top of the commercial/ business aspects of their profession and practices.  

Media Contact: Sachin Joshi, Simplifying Business, 0406002818, [email protected]

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SOURCE Sachin Joshi