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.Objectives: 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.