An Unequal Division of Labour in the Medical Profession - Essay Example

 An Unequal Division of Labour in the Medical Profession Although the occupations relating to the medical profession are wide and populous, the actual division of the profession itself in regards to gender is vast and unavoidable. “Division of labour is generally speaking the specialization of co-operative labour in specific, circumscribed tasks and roles, intended to increase efficiency of output.” (“Wikipedia”, 2005). The first division of labour in the history of the human species was between man and woman, and still continues to be an incredibly substantial matter in today’s world, especially so in the medical profession, which is today vastly overpowered by men; and was once in fact considered a ‘woman’s profession’. An important goal for medical education today is professional development including gender equality and awareness of gender issues. Medical school is the breeding background for not only medical knowledge but also for professional development and careers, including equal opportunities and gender equality. In order to understand how unequal the division of labour in the medical profession actually is and the process of how it has changed from the past to the present, the following points must be considered: 1. How equal was the division of labour in the medical profession the past? 2. How equal is the division of labour in the medical profession in today’s world? 3. What were the main factors that caused the change in the division of labour between the past and today? By discussing these three key questions, a more accurate and understanding conclusion can be made on this subject matter. This is what will be dissertated in the following. How Equal was the Division of Labour in the Medical Profession in the Past? Historically both the gendered role of nursing and the sex of nurses were almost exclusively female. More than half of the people involved in health care have always been women. Historically, women were considered healers, and it was they who gave almost all the medical help that was available until two centuries ago. It may well be said that most practical medicine was in the hands of women in the past times. Even though women were more often than not completely ignored when applying for admittance to medical schools, it was almost solely women, who gathered herbs and infused them into vegetable remedies, bathed the arthritic and manipulated their joints, and looked after pregnant women and delivered their babies. “However in classical Egypt for many centuries women had a significant role as physicians, notably in the medical schools at Heliopolis and Sais.” (Carr, n.d.). During the dark ages, the best known woman was Hildegarde of Bingen (1098-1179), who apparently had visions explained to her in Latin by a voice from heaven, and concluded by writing two medical manuscripts on plant animal and mineral medicines, and on physiology and the nature of the disease. Women were also involved in folk, alternative, and commercial medicine at this time, although many notable women who specialized in these areas are hard to classify. Women made many important contributions to medicine, such as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu who discovered the technique of inoculation against smallpox, or the ‘old woman in Shropshire’ who was responsible for the discovery of digitalis. From the 17th century on, new hospitals were opened which were controlled by the church and organized by nuns. This was undoubtedly “…a formal beginning to the clear division of healing duties along a gender line; nurses were usually women until recently.” (Carr, n.d.). In 18th century Europe, the medical profession started to become an increasingly rigid and formal occupation. This was at a time when “…men dominated the social and economic position of women.” (Carr, n.d.). Men were considered the ones who actually controlled entry to the professions of the field of medicine; by the 1900s there were very few women – only around 200 – in the now completely formal profession, and it was men who carried out the treatment and investigation in traditional physician dominated medicine. “Women were active in the sanitarian movements of the mid-nineteenth century and it was argued that their private virtues should also find expression in the public sphere.” (Hall, 2004). Women were beginning to demand allowance of admission to the medical profession. Even if a woman was able to get into a college or university, it was highly unlikely that any hospital or other medical institution would employ a female doctor. How Equal is the Division of Labour in the Medical Profession in Today’s World? Although women form 75% of the non-health services (NHS) work force, at the present time only 25% of doctors are women. (Abbott & Wallace, 1990). Even though the proportion of female doctors is rising in today’s world, “…continued constraints are placed on women in the health professions.” (“Contemporary Sociology”, 1993). Even in spite of more than a hundred years of women doctors and the professionalizing of nursing, the social expectation tends to be that doctors will be men. However, women today are entering medical school in greater numbers than ever before. Whereas in 1930 women comprised only 4.4% of all medical students, in 1989-1990, that number was over 36%, and continues to grow steadily from then on until today, and according to the statistics will most likely continue to increase steadily in this way in the future as well. Over the last 10 years, there has been a marked shift in regards to the ratio between men and women doctors. Although currently only a third of hospital consultants and workers are women, it is assumed that over the next decade that balance will change substantially in favour of women. This assumption comes following the factual figure that 51% of the registrars in medical training are women. Women are actually now encouraged to enter the field of medicine, and are presently strongly represented in clinical oncology, paediatrics, and psychiatry. What Were the Main Factors That Caused the Change in the Division of Labour Between the Past and Today? There are many factors that changed the gender statistics between the past and today. One of the most critical is the attitude that scholarly programmes – colleges and universities, have today compared to previous years. Schools which in the beginning had discouraged and even denied women from being admitted now have a completely opposite attitude; women are encouraged and openly accepted to these centres. The fact that women are considered to be more sensitive than men has played a great role in the division of labour relating to gender in the medical profession. “The gender difference may also teach us something about the doctor’s role in general because women may be more sensitive than men to emotional demands made on doctors.” (Theorell, 2000). In the old era the number of patients varied incredibly differently from that of today, and the system allowed very little scope for emotional demands from patients, The present time is drastically altered – “…patients demand empathy, and doctors (women more than men, perhaps) feel that demand on them to show empathy.” (Theorell, 2000). This has actually been noted as to one possible reason why female doctors have tended to have a higher suicide than their male counterparts. A study of life events has shown that “…doctors report more negative life events dealing with deaths and illnesses among friends and relatives than do other working men and women.” (Theorell, 1993). Faced with pressures such as these, many women have tended to select a less career oriented life. Television is a form of media which actually contributes much to the gender division in the medical profession. Underestimated and often times not even considered relevant at all, television provides a framework for what is acceptable and what is unacceptable in society, and also sends out implicit and explicit messages of what the world as a whole is actually like. One of the most important and pervasive social roles is that of gender, and in the digital and electronic, media filled environment we live in today, television has the potential to teach children about how men and women are supposed to act in society, and may mould their views of what is actually expected of them in society as a person due to their particular gender. Extensive studies of television show that on average men outnumber women 3:1. These studies also show that television still adheres to sex-role stereotypes presenting women as the nurturing, caring, emotional care-givers, while men are the supporting ‘bread-winners’. Television has been identified as the form of media which most highly represents women for the majority being models, nurses, maids or secretaries, while men remain to fill the spots of occupations such as doctors. It has been recognized that television can provide an important and powerful source of occupational status knowledge, and that without a doubt “children do derive significant occupational information from television.” (Van Evra, 1990, pg. 118). Through ongoing studies and research, it has been shown that there is a tendency for children to report the male as the doctor and the female as the nurse. This is an important part of the explanation as to why many women decide not to enter the medical field. “The income, prestige, and authority of doctors in most western countries reflects their omnipotence amongst health care professionals and their power within our society…However, concurrent with the increasing number of women entering medicine, there has been a recent decrease in that power.” (Riska, 2001). The victimization of female doctors has occurred in such situations of female family physicians being sexually harassed by male patients – of which a significant proportion of female doctors have reported to. The victimization of these female doctors could only occur if the particular offending male patients saw their physician as vulnerable women rather than hard-working professionals. This is to say that in the eyes of many of their male patients, female doctors are considered ‘women first’, rather than the professional physicians that they are, which is a relevant explanation as to why many of their female nurse colleagues view them through a so-called ‘gender lens’, and therefore find themselves hesitant to take the same route. Men are the most present gender in every level of medical power and authority however, “…while women are not present in large numbers and are not making the same gains.” (“Feminist”, 2005). Men are encouraged to be high achievers, to have success and prosperity, while women are encouraged to be good mothers, and in order to attract a man they must be (according to our culture) giving, emotional, unstable, weak, and talkative about their problems, and are valued by their looks and charm as opposed to their strength and brains. Women doctors are also perceived to be “…less demanding and more consultative in their approach.” (Pringle, 1996). Similar to this, it has also been noted that “Research on doctor-patient relationship indicates that female and male physicians differ when comparing time and communication pattern. Female physicians have longer encounters and include more partnership building and emotional support.” (Roter, Hall & Aoki, 2002). “Female physicians often work in less prestigious fields than men.” (Kvaerner, 1999). Besides the fact that women receive less distinguished career opportunities than their male counterparts, they are also often stereotyped as less intelligent, less professional, and more emotional and overly sensitive. In her book Walking out the boys, Frances K Conley – professor of neurosurgery at Stanford and acting chief of staff of the Palo Alto Veterans Health Care System – discusses the sort of sex discrimination which she encountered in academic medicine. “…the message heard by women was that only a certain few disciplines were open to us, and…we should not expect a built-in support system.” She also went on to comment that “…women are still viewed as being infinitely more suited to a career in primary care than in a surgical or medical speciality.” (Showalter, 1999). One of the greater challenges women face when attempting to tackle the unequal division of labour which lies in the medical profession, is the challenge of changing the attitude of men as well, and to transform the public. “Internalized assumptions that link professional leadership to long hours, sacrifice of personal interests, and stereotypes of managerial style.” (Showalter, 1999). In other words, it is automatically assumed by some that women simply cannot handle the long hours, hard work and dedication which is required in the medical profession. ‘Woman first’, physician second, is the thinking analogy which many seem to consider by. When most people think of a doctor, they more often than not tend to associate that term with a man, whether intended or not. Irregardless of the steps and progress women have made in the medical field, it is nearly completely looked upon as ‘man’s work’, and the occupation is stereotyped as this. However, the statistic of the male being predominant is not only shown in the field of medicine – “The statistics on leadership and influence in medicine are no different from those in other professions. The picture would look the same if we considered women as deans or chancellors of universities, presidents of corporations, political candidates, or film directors.” Women have already overcome many obstacles and “…accommodated themselves to traditional structures in order to enter a medical profession that long excluded them. If they are to achieve leadership, the profession, as well as the women, will have to change.” (Showalter, 1999). The division of labour in the medical profession has changed dramatically throughout history, and is presumed to continue to do so – a sort of complete turnaround in the fact that women will dominate the medical field in the near future. As the proportion of women doctors increases, other solutions will have to be found: a more humane situation must be created. References “BMA”. (2001, July). The changing face of medicine: today’s doctors. Retrieved January 9, 2006, from http://www.bma.org/ap.nsf/Content/Changing+face+of+medicine+-+Today's+doctors?OpenDocument&Highlight=2,women,medicine Carr, Ian. (n.d.). Women in Healing and the Medical Profession. Retrieved January 10, 2006, from http://www.umanitoba.ca/outreach/manitoba_womens_health/wominmed.htm “Contemporary Sociology”. (1993, August). Women and the medical division of labour. Retrieved January 2, 2006, from http://www.sagepub.com/book.aspx?pid=5929 “Feminist”. (2005). Empowering Women in Medicine. Retrieved January 3, 2006, from http://www.feminist.org/research/medicine/ewm_toc.html Hall, Lesley A.. (2004, April). Women and the medical professions. Retrieved January 2, 2006, from http://homepages.primex.co.uk/~lesleyah/wmdrs.htm Kvaerner, NJ, Aslund OG & Botten GS: Female Medical Leadership: cross sectional study. BMJ 1999, 318:91-94. Pringle, R. Nursing a grievance: women doctors and nurses. Journal of Gender Studies. 1996:5:157-168. Riska, E: Towards gender balance: but will women physicians have an impact on medicine? Soc sci med 2001, 52:179-187. Roter, DL, Hall JA & Aoki, Y: Physician gender effects in medical communication. A meta-analytic review. JAMA 2002, 288(6):756-764. Showalter, E: Improving the position of women in medicine. BMJ 1999, 318:71-72. Theorell, Töres. (2000, May). Changing Society: Changing role of doctors. Retrieved January 4, 2006, from http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/320/7247/1417 Theorell, T. & Emlund, N.. (1993). On physiological effects of positive and negative life changes – a longitudinal study. 37: 653- 659[CrossRef][Medline] “Wikipedia”. (2005). Division of labour. Retrieved January 7, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_labour Read More