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GTOM: Underrepresentation in Cardiology
- Nicole Gbenebitse
- Jan 10, 2021
- 3 min read
When we watch Cristina Yang; a talented yet headstrong cardiothoracic surgeon, strut through the halls of Seattle Grace Mercy West hospital, we all feel a sense of admiration. Whether Yang is your favorite character on Grey’s Anatomy or your least favorite, we can all come to a universal consensus that her thirst for knowledge is truly inspiring. Not only is she a female surgeon, but she is of Korean descent, which sends a stirring message to the millions of viewers at home. Dr.Yang motivates young girls, in particular, to strive to become an outstanding doctor, never settling for less and always fighting more. The medical field as remarkable as it is, has a profound amount of disparities engrained within itself. The main focus today is cardiology and how women are underrepresented, underestimated, and underpaid.
We all know how hard women have fought since the beginning of time for equality with their male counterparts. How hard women have fought to simply be granted an MD degree, to be deemed as mentally capable as men. Although we are in more developed times, there are still vast amounts of unfair discrepancies between both genders, which should be nonexistent in medicine. To start, there is an enormous pay gap in the healthcare industry that puts men at more of an advantage than women. There is evidence proving that there are more men who enter challenging specialties, while women go into easier ones such as primary care. This could be a valid reason why the pay gap is so disparate, but when you take into consideration the wage differences between male and female cardiologists—cardiology being a very competitive specialty—men still earn more. According to Jaimy Lee, a health care reporter at MarketWatch, “The ACC found that male cardiologists make between $31,749 and $37,717 more than their female counterparts” (Lee, 2019). So now one can’t use the excuse that men are paid more because they go into harder specialties because just as Lee states, despite if the job is more difficult or not the pay is not equal.
Interestingly enough, female cardiologists are more likely to be sexually harassed in the medical setting. The number of sexual harassment women undergo can correspond to the fact that they are underrepresented in the scope of cardiology. This specialty is already seen as male-dominated, disallowing women to be around role models that resemble them during training. This causes them to “constitute less than 13 percent of cardiologists, and a mere 4.5 percent of practicing interventional cardiologists” (Erikson, 2019). Factors like these intimidate female doctors which generates a depiction of themselves as inferior, this is tremendously damaging to their overall health. As if this isn’t enough, women are still prone to more discrimination by patients or other male cardiologists who associate this inferiority complex with female physicians. Attenhofer Jost Christine of Cardiovascular Medicine writes that, “female cardiologists experienced sex discrimination not only from other physicians but also from patients and allied health professionals” (Attenhofer, 2019). This should definitely not be an issue aspiring female cardiologists or cardiothoracic surgeons have to fear for while entering medicine, but sadly it is.
Therefore we should all work together to help fix these terrible problems within the healthcare industry. I believe that those in charge of hospitals and medical programs should do a better job accommodating the needs of their female doctors, as well as integrating more representation. Representation is such an important component in medicine that needs to be ubiquitous, this can easily increase the amount of Black, Hispanic, female, and nonbinary physicians. The more people you see that look like you taking on prestigious jobs, the more likely that person will be to pursue that job as well. Even raising further awareness of the tremendous pay gap can be the first step to change in the medical field. Young women around the world should not be discouraged to go into difficult specialties like cardiology in fear of all the issues I have addressed. Instead, we should all be like Cristina Yang and break through these barriers in medicine, fighting tooth and nail for the career we want, and the utmost respect we deserve.
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