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Women physicians reported that they experienced more incidents of gender-based and sexual harassment when they were medical students or residents than in their practice, according to a new study published in the February 23 issue of the Journal of Archives of Internal Medicine.
Thirty-one percent of the 48 percent of women physicians reporting having ever experienced gender harassment said it occurred in medical school, and 29 percent said it occurred in internship, residency, or fellowship, compared with 25 percent who said it occurred in their professional practice.
Gender harassment is defined as feeling harassed because of events specific to being female in a male-dominated culture, according to the article.
Lead author Erica Frank, M.D., an assistant professor in the department of family and preventive medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, and her research colleagues analyzed data from a national survey of women physicians aged 30 years to 70 years (4,501 respondents) to determine the prevalence of sexual and gender-based harassment. The researchers used a random stratified sample for their analysis.
Women physicians also reported higher rates of sexual harassment in medical school (20 percent) and residency (19 percent) than professional practice (11 percent). The authors defined sexual harassment as unwanted physical or verbal attention, propositions, hostilities, or threats.
Frank told Psychiatric News, "Our findings and those in the recent JAMA article suggest that harassment of various types continues in the present medical training environment and is part of a continuum of power in the medical hierarchy."
The authors state, "Whereas our data may reflect younger women's greater sensitivity to harassment, they certainly do not suggest that the training milieu is improving."
The authors observe that harassment is an exercise in power that may produce a variety of ill effects, including reduced productivity, morale, and job satisfaction. "The profession of medicine, particularly in academic settings, may be especially prone to harassment because of the importance of hierarchy. This may account for the higher prevalence of harassment found in training environments in our data and the somewhat lower prevalence experienced among women physicians once they are in practice, in a typically higher place in the hierarchy."
The authors observe that much remains to be learned about the psychological, emotional, and physical effects of harassment.
They conclude, "As physicians must update their understanding of appropriate practice of patient care, they must also update appropriate and acceptable practice for professional interactions. Our data suggest that there has been and remains a substantial divide between what many women and some men consider acceptable professional interactions, and this could have considerable professional and human consequences."