London: The NHS faces a chronic shortage of women in senior positions as female medical staff hit a glass ceiling, doctors' leaders are warning.
Fewer than 30 per cent of consultant posts in the health service are held by women, even though two-thirds of doctors entering the profession are female. Female doctors also earn, in general, 18 per cent less than male doctors.
Now the British Medical Association which represents more than 140,000 doctors and medical students is launching a new initiative called Women in Medicine to try to boost the number of women in senior medical posts.
Professor Bhupinder Sandhu, the chair of the BMA's equality and diversity committee, said: "Women have come a long way since the 19th century when they were not allowed to go to medical school. However, while equality between male and female doctors is relatively OK at the bottom end of the profession, getting into medical school and the early jobs in medicine, there are still areas where women are not rising."
"There are still some medical specialities like academia and surgery where it is difficult to combine a top-level career and having a family. This means there are very few female role models at the top end and that is an issue," Sandhu added.
"Part of the problem is the need for flexible working, but that is much easier now particularly in the NHS where most doctors work. The other problem is that women are not pushing themselves forward," Sandhu said.
"What this campaign is doing is raising awareness of the contribution that women make to medicine and exploding the myth that it is not possible for women to put in as much as men. There is also the business case; with 56 per cent of medical school graduates being women, we need to make sure having spent over 250,000 on training them that there are no unnecessary barriers."
Female doctors are massively under-represented in senior jobs in the NHS, universities and within the BMA and medical royal colleges. While women account for up to 59 per cent of the medical workforce, they account for just 28 per cent of consultants. They are particularly under-represented in specialist roles, where fewer than 10 per cent of consultants were female in 2006.
