GENDER DISCRIMINATION AMONG PHYSICIANS

Abstract

Introduction:Women’s representation in the health sector has risen throughout time, especially in higher-paying healthcare jobs. Gender discrimination and disparities are systematic, according to recent research findings. Aim of Work:To assess.the presence of any gender-based workplace discrimination among physicians Materials and Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted on 314 Egyptian physicians after reviewing many academic work-related gender inequality questionnaires.A new questionnaire was created and used. Results: The study included 314 Egyptian physicians. Their mean age was 31.73 ± 3.37 years, 58.3% were females, 69.1% were married, 71.7% were of urban residence, 88.9% had enough income and 70.4% had master’s degree in their specialty. Most of the participants (89.9%) wereworking in the clinical field, 66.6% worked more than eight hours/day and all of them had co-workers of both genders.About 82.5% of females believed that males had more job opportunities, while 64.5% did not believe there was equality in rights and needs for both genders in their workplace. One-third of males said their boss assigned them to work tasks based on their gender;13.7% of all males thought their current employer had ever treated them unfairly in terms of vacations, 16.0% in terms of work schedule planning, 22.1% in terms of working hours, and 31.3% thought their bosswould assign them to important work tasks based on their gender. Conclusion and Recommendations:Even though female health care workers (HCW) believe that males have more job opportunities and that there is inequality in rights and needs for both genders at work, male HCW advocate for more workloads, longer working hours, and vacation restrictions.Preventing gender inequality at work requires the establishment of strong leadership commitment, regular gender bias training and flexible work arrangements