Review Article

Insight for Gender Discrimination and Inhibition in Medicine:Challenges and the Way Forward

Asma Abdul Razzak1
Jinnah Medical and Dental College Karachi
Lubna Kamani2
Liaquat National Hospital Karachi
Kiran Bajaj2
Liaquat National Hospital Karachi
Nazish Butt3
Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre Karachi

✉ Correspondence: Asma Abdul Razzak Email: drasmabandhani@hotmail.co.uk

DOI https://doi.org/10.70302/jpsim.v5i1.2403
Volume: 5, Issue 1 (Women Issue) Pages: 370–374 Published: 28 Feb 2024
Received: 13 Oct 2023 Accepted: 29 Nov 2023 Published Online: 28 Feb 2024

Abstract

The part of female medical graduates in medical schools has been increasing during the past several years, as has the sum of women practicing medicine and otherspecialties worldwide. Despite theirshared desire to work in interventional professions such as surgery and gastroenterology (GE), women remain significantly underrepresented in these professions. A survey was distributed to female patients who were waiting on appointments for basic care at four sites as part of an American study. International reports state that women make up 13% of GE consultants and roughly 25–30% of GE fellows. Of those surveyed, 43% said they would choose a woman endoscopist, 87% said they would give time lag of 30 days for one, while 14% said they would be willing to pay more for one. A multicenter, cross-sectional study carried out in three Pakistani tertiary care facilities. Of the patients who showed favoritism for a particular gender, 707 (65.6%) were willing to wait an average of 7 daysfor an endoscopist ofthat gender, and 511 (72.3%) were not.In addition to the previouslymentioned obstacles, programs that cater to the female community should take consistent gender choice for an endoscopist into account as an obstacle to screening. Women's compliance with colonoscopy may be increased by the endoscopist's gender preference.

How to Cite This Article

Razzak AA, Kamani L, Bajaj K, Butt N. Insight for Gender Discrimination and Inhibition in Medicine:Challenges and the Way Forward. J Pak Soc Intern Med. 2024;5(1):370–374. doi:10.70302/jpsim.v5i1.2403

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Conflict of Interest

All authors declare no competing interests.

Disclosed in accordance with ICMJE and COPE guidelines.

Funding

No specific funding was received for this research.

Funder information follows the Crossref Funder Registry standard.

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CC BY CC BY 4.0 This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. May be shared and adapted with attribution. © 2024 Journal of Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine.
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