Women physicians in Canada consistently earn less than men

Why? (No it’s not because what’s hidden in our underwear)

Read our new analysis @cmaj @michellecohen
https://www.cmaj.ca/content/192/35/E1011

Or listen to the podcast https://soundcloud.com/cmajpodcasts/200375-ana

Here's a short twitter summary 1/

The pay gap between men and women is present in every single specialty

Data from Ontario (courtesy of @BorisKraljPhD) is remarkably consistent

Male family MDs earn 30% more than women

Male specialists earn 40% more than women 2/

The pay gap also exists between specialties

We used publicly available data from @CIHI_ICIS @CMA_Docs @ICESOntario and found that higher earning specialties (e.g. radiology, cardiology) had a higher proportion of men and the converse was true for lower earning specialties 3/

The pay gap is not a result of women working less (or less efficiently) than men

Yes, women worked slightly fewer hours per week than men but the difference in hours in no way explained the magnitude of the pay gap 4/

At it's root, the pay gap relates to sexism and discrimination. One of the starkest example is from surgery.

In this great paper @JAMASurgery, @enenbee @fdossa found that women surgeons made 24% less PER HOUR then male surgeons

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamasurgery/article-abstract/2751882 5/

They found there was no difference in time spent per procedures

Rather women were doing less lucrative procedures

Why? Women were more likely to operate on women - and procedures for women pay less e.g.
penile biopsy = $39.60
vulvar biopsy = $26.85

6/

There are many other examples of sexism in medicine:
-the hidden curriculum that encourages women to enter "family friendly" specialties that are lower paid
-men in leadership hiring & promoting other men through informal networks
-referral biases that advantage men

7/

So, what can we do to address the gender pay gap?

Here are a few concrete steps:
-commit to action
-transparently report data
-adopt standard, fair, and transparent hiring & promotion practices
-actively seek women in leadership roles
-support better maternity/parental leave 8/

Closing the the gender pay gap will require multifaceted action

Many people have a role to play incl. medical associations, gov't, faculties of medicine, clinical leaders & individual MDs

Please share this infographic widely to spark & guide change 9/

https://maphealth.ca/wp-content/uploads/Actions-to-address-the-gender-pay-gap-Kiran-Cohen.pdf

Ultimately, the difference in pay between men and women is only one of the pay gaps we need to study and address

We also need better data to understand pay gaps related to race, disability, and other factors as well as the gap for transgender and non-binary physicians 10/

As physicians, we are of course relatively privileged members of society and our efforts for pay equity within the profession should not exacerbate broader societal inequity but rather support and advance other pay equity struggles 11/

A huge thanks to the strong women leaders who have led advocacy on this issue for years and who helped us shape our paper including @enenbee @fdossa @drlesleybarron @RitikaGoelTO @MalikaHSharma and Dr. Sharon Strauss

And my biggest supporter @IrfanDhalla 12/