Gender bias in healthcare has been well researched and documented. For example, a study conducted in 2016 by the University College London of the medical records of 68,000 dementia patients, found that female dementia sufferers in the UK received worse medical treatment than men with dementia. Women with the condition made fewer visits to the GP, receive less health monitoring and also more likely to be taking sedatives or anti-psychotics.
Research also shows that women visiting their GP for chronic pain often do not feel adequately listened to. This is particularly so for gynaecological conditions leading the National Health Service to issue guidelines to doctors to listen to women when they complain of pain, particularly pain which may be caused by endometriosis which takes an average of seven to eight years to be diagnosed.
Such gender bias appears to extend to the community in first aid situations. Recent research conducted by the American Heart Association and National Institutes of Health looked at 20,000 cases of people experiencing a cardiac arrest in a public place and found that only 39 percent of women were given CPR versus 45 percent of men. Each year more than 350,000 Americans experience a cardiac arrest in a setting other than a hospital and around 90 percent of them die. CPR can increase the odds of survival but in such cases men are 23 percent more likely to survive than women.
One reason offered for the lower likelihood of female heart attack victims being given CPR is the reluctance from bystanders to touch a woman’s chest and there have been calls to improve CPR training which often involves male mannequins. Overall, women are less likely to seek help for heart attack as their symptoms vary to those experienced by men which are more widely publicised.
Gender bias in the medical profession
Gender bias also appears to exist in the medical profession in some areas. A recent Harvard study found that in the United States gender of a surgeon affects their rate of referral, irrespective of skill. According to the research, following an unsuccessful surgery surgeons reduce their referral rate by 54 percent for female surgeons whereas male surgeons only experience a slight reduction in referral rates following an unsuccessful surgery. The research, based on Medicare data on referrals from doctors to surgeons, also found that women were less likely than their male colleagues to be promoted to high-level positions.
Research into gender bias in the health industry is important for bringing about change. In 2015 the Australian Government National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) announced a gender equity policy to support the retention and progression of women in health and medical research to address the fact that in 2014 women made up 63 percent of all applications for early career fellowships, which fell to just 11 percent for senior and experienced fellowships.
As a part of the policy, the NHMRC requested that administering institutions address seven gender equity requirements which included strategies, provisions and arrangements to support women in the industry. There was a 100 percent response rate and 80 percent of institutions met six or seven requirements, achieving a Very Good to Excellent rating in NHMRC’s gender equity policy requirement outcomes.