Happy National Women Physicians Day!
February 3rd is the birthday of Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive a medical degree in America in 1849. By taking these first courageous steps forward, Blackwell opened the door for women to enter the field of medicine – a career that had previously been inaccessible to females.
Did you know that women make up over a third of the physician workforce and studies have shown that patients cared for by women doctors have better health outcomes.
Nationally, there are still fewer female doctors than male doctors, but the progress is steady. In 2017, for the first time in history, women made up more than half of all those in medical schools.
Dads Married to Doctors (DMD) is proud and happy to celebrate the women physicians in our lives.
Additional Stats:
(thanks for sharing Physician Moms Group founder, Dr. Hala Sabry-Elnaggar)
👩🏽‍⚕️Women physicians make up 35% of the United States healthcare work force
👩🏼‍⚕️Women physicians get paid on average 27% LESS than their male counterparts for the same work/same hours
👩🏿‍⚕️In leadership women physicians also are the minority – representing only 16% of all deans and department chairs at medical centers
👩🏻‍⚕️Women physicians are regularly not addressed by their title at conferences and medical conventions when their male counterparts are addressed as such
👩🏾‍⚕️Minority women physicians have worse stats of all the above listed
👩‍⚕️Sexual harassment is just as prominent in the medical field with 30% of women physicians reporting sexual harassment from their colleagues or peers. The stats are worse for female medical students.
How can you show your support?
One way is to download the Facebook Profile frame and update your profile photo.
Click the photo above of DMD Founder, Curtis Webster, and his wife, EM Physician, Allison, to get your own profile frame!
Additional Ways to show support from Dr. Sabry-Elnaggar
1. Don’t assume that the woman in the room at your doctors office, hospital, etc. is not the doctor.
2. Call women physicians by “Doctor” as a sign of respect unless they choose and tell you they would like to be called by any other title.
3. Support girls who want to go into medicine – please don’t discourage them saying “it’s too hard” or “you can’t raise a family.”
4. Stand up for pay equity (saying it again for all the men in the back!). #heforshe
5. Thank a woman physician today for their service to communities around the world!
Join the online celebration by shouting out your favorite women physicians using the following hashtags:
#NWPD #IAmBlackwell #womeninmedicine #PhysicianFamily #WomenDocsInspire #DMDLifestyle #PMG
HISTORY
In an effort to raise awareness of the importance of a physician-led healthcare team and female physicians’ roles in medicine, Physician Moms Group and Medelita founded February 3rd as National Women Physicians Day. Physician Moms Group successfully celebrated the first National Women Physicians Day on February 3, 2016.Â
Read more about why Dr. Hala Sabry-Elnaggar founded this holiday to support women in medicine below:
The Registrar at National Day Calendar® declared National Women Physicians Day in 2017.
Header image courtesy of: Education Management Solutions
Curtis is a dad to three little girls and has been married to an ER Doc for over 13 years. Life is busy, but life is good! He enjoys bourbon, poker and meeting new friends, which is what led him to create the facebook group, Dads Married to Doctors. His mantra, “Life is BETTER when we do life together!”
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