Topics to ponder: Part-time practice and pay parity.
BACKGROUND
The medical profession has undergone a significant demographic change, with a dramatic increase in the number of women applying to medical school and practicing medicine.


OBJECTIVE
In recognition of the changing demographics in the medical profession, the American Medical Association's Women Physicians Congress (AMA-WPC) conducted a members' survey to identify the issues affecting women physicians and to ascertain certain practice characteristics.


METHODS
In 2008, an e-mail survey link was sent to a randomly selected nationwide sample of 4992 WPC members, and a second, identical survey was sent to 596 female AMA members, utilizing the Epocrates database (Epocrates, Inc., San Mateo, California). Two e-mail reminders were sent for the first survey, which had a 15% response rate. A quota of 148 physicians was received within 4 days and was utilized to interpret results from the second survey.


RESULTS
Achieving work-life balance was a significant concern for 91% of the respondents (n = 884). Half of the respondents believed that pay is gender neutral, and 28% indicated that they were "somewhat or very concerned about sexual harassment". When queried regarding practice patterns, 29% of respondents indicated that they had worked part-time at some point during their careers.


CONCLUSIONS
In this survey, women physicians indicated that gender pay disparity and sexual harassment remain important issues in the medical profession. Less than a third of respondents had ever worked part-time, which should be a consideration for physician workforce studies. Barriers to part-time practice may exist.
Tracy
Erin E
EE
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, 02180, USA. EETracy@partners.org
Wiler
Jennifer L
JL
Holschen
Jolie C
JC
Patel
Soha Sumanchandra
SS
Ligda
Kristin Ondecko
KO
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003625:Data Collection; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D007899:Leisure Activities / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010822:Physicians, Women; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012456:Salaries and Fringe Benefits; D017406:Sexual Harassment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D014940:Work Schedule Tolerance / Q000523:psychology