Female Doctors Report Being Sexually Harassed
More than one-third of female doctors say they have been sexually harassed, according to a survey that suggests the problem isn’t disappearing from the medical profession.
A nationwide survey found 36.9% reported having been sexually harassed, while, overall, 47.7% reported having been targets of gender-based harassment, researchers said in today’s issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The 1993-94 poll did not define the difference between “gender-based” and “sexual” harassment, but tests among focus groups indicated that gender-based harassment generally related to being female in a traditionally male environment, without having a sexual or physical component.
The poll also did not ask women to specify what behavior they thought constituted harassment, only whether they believed it had occurred.
Younger physicians reported higher rates of sexual harassment than older ones, and medical schools were the most common site, said researchers led by Dr. Erica Frank of Emory University in Atlanta.
“Some may believe that problems of harassment will disappear in time, that they are simply a function of older, sexist physicians still being in practice,” the researchers said.
But the data suggest a more complicated picture, they said.
While younger women may be more sensitive to harassment than their older colleagues, the survey suggests that harassment may be worsening in schools and “we may be continuing to train physicians in an environment where harassment is common,” the researchers said.
“Present thought characterizes sexual harassment as primarily a manifestation of power, rather than sexual attraction. The profession of medicine, particularly in academic settings, may be especially prone to harassment because of the importance of hierarchy,” the researchers said.
“This is the first study of the harassment of women physicians in a large national sample,” said Janet Bickel, vice president for institutional planning and development at the Assn. of American Medical Colleges in Washington.
“Many of us hoped that the increasing numbers of women--now 42% in medical schools--and the fact that virtually all medical schools and hospitals now have sexual-harassment policies, which we could not say 10 years ago . . . would [cause the problem to] be going down faster,” Bickel said in an interview. “This shows it’s still an issue.”
The survey was based on responses from 4,501 women, ages 30 to 70, including part-time, practicing and retired doctors from medical school classes that graduated in each of the years from 1950 to 1989.
