The American College of Physicians (ACP) is calling for gender equity in physician compensation and career advancement in a paper published online April 17 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The organization offers a set of goals for correcting gender inequalities in medicine, including the following:
- Ensure that physician compensation is equitable and that no physician is penalized for working less than full time.
- Support universal access to family and medical leave policies that provide a minimum of six weeks of leave for physicians, residents, and medical students, regardless of gender.
- Urge all organizations that employ physicians to take steps to increase the number of women in leadership positions.
- Invest in further research on the effects of gender compensation inequity and barriers to career advancement, as well as best practices to close gaps across all practice settings.
- Implement regular implicit bias training by all organizations that employ physicians.
- Establish programs in leadership development, negotiation, and career development for all physicians and physicians in training.
"While progress has been made to improve gender diversity in the physician workforce, barriers to equity still exist, which is currently proven by the disproportionately low number of female physicians achieving academic advancement and serving in leadership positions," said ACP President Dr. Jack Ende in a statement. "A concerted effort must be made to eliminate the inequities that exist in compensation and career advancement opportunities."
