08.03.18
Men hold majority of senior roles in NHS despite women making up most of workforce
Women continue to hold a minority of senior roles in the NHS, despite making up over three quarters of the workforce, NHS Digital’s latest figures have revealed.
The analysis of NHS workforce statistics, released today by NHS Digital for International Women’s Day shows that just 37% of senior roles are held by women, whilst 74% of band 1 staff, the lowest paid group in the NHS, are women.
Bands 2 to 7 have ratios of at least four women to every man, whereas just 36% of consultants are women.
However, the figures do show that there has been some narrowing of the gender divide, but progress is slow.
In 2009 just 30% of consultants were women, and 31% of senior positions were held by women.
Between November 2009 and November 2017 the number of female hospital and community health service (HCHS) doctors increased by almost 11,000, whilst the number of male doctors rose by just over 4,000 during the same period.
This means that 35% of HCHS doctors are now women, compared with 41% in 2009.
According to NHS Digital, every specialty group across HCHS doctors have seen an increase in the proportion of women.
The proportion of female chief executives across NHS Trusts, CCGs, supporting organisations and central bodies has increased from 38% in 2009 to 44%.
NHS Digital’s analysis further breaks down the data by ethnicity, revealing that gender gaps for non-white ethnicities are wider - 41% of white senior managers are women, whilst just 30% of senior roles held by people of Asian and Asian British ethnicity are women.
Responding to the figures, Dr. Anthea Mowat, BMA representative body chair, welcomed the progress made since 2009, with women comprising almost half of the medical profession.
“However, as these figures today highlight, this progress is slow and there is something of a bottleneck emerging, as women are still in the minority in more senior roles and almost two thirds of consultants are me,” she said.
Mowat explained: “Women can face all kinds of barriers during their careers – they are more likely to take time off to have children and then work part time because of childcare or caring for relatives, which affects career progression, as well as experiencing discrimination and undermining behaviour at work.
“These issues also have an impact on the gender pay gap in medicine, which is heavily linked to part time working, and an unequal share of childcare responsibilities.”
She added: “The BMA hopes that the new review of the gender pay gap will scrutinise these ongoing barriers and lead to policy changes that will benefit women doctors at all stages of their careers.
“The BMA is working to understand these trends better so that we can increase our support for women’s medical careers and address any ongoing discrimination and bias.
“In the meantime we would like to see more tailored support for women in medicine, such as mentoring, role models and leadership training.”
Top image: porcorex
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