It was recently circulated on social media that flamingos are known to lose their bright pink hue in times of adversity, such as when raising their young. This is due to the tremendous energy it takes to nourish their young flaminglets, often at the sake of their own wellbeing. Similarly, women lose their metaphorical bright “pink” during times of adversity, whether that be due to their careers or during the biological changes women experience from menstruation to motherhood to menopause. Women play many roles on a daily basis, as the primary caretaker of loved ones, the “default parent,” professional roles and more. Akin to flamingos, as women progress through various stages of life, they may temporarily lose their pink while juggling these roles simultaneously.
Gender equity in the workforce would mean understanding the personal, professional, and physical challenges women face and then creating an infrastructure to allow them to thrive. Women in the workforce cannot be separated from their personal lives in the household as providers, parents, or partners. Women take on various roles simultaneously, and it would be inaccurate to say that one has no effect on the other.
To systematically create a foundation that supports women through personal, professional, and physical challenges, we must acknowledge that they exist. In this article, we will lead the readers through just some of the gender based inequities women face through their careers.
Early career: the beginning of a journey in medicine
Personal challenges
It is during this time that women need to build up their confidence as they embark on this journey and discover their career goals. More importantly, it is a time to determine the emotional capabilities, mental capabilities, and stamina needed to enter a male-dominated world riddled with patriarchal viewpoints. Female physicians are known to have one of the highest rates of depression and have a four times increase compared to the population at large for suicide.
Professional challenges
Women comprise 50 percent of medical school graduates in North America and still remain underrepresented in positions of leadership and promotions. To obtain the same career advancements in a male-dominated world, women are challenged with significant disadvantages. With fewer women holding higher leadership positions, women more commonly come across male mentors who offer advice without considering the fact that a woman’s pathway is not the same as a man’s. This grossly neglects the fact that women face many inequities that men do not even consider.
Physical challenges
What makes this time even more challenging is that sex-specific health concerns arise from the ages of 15 to 50, coinciding with the beginning of a woman’s career to the end. More than 25 percent of women experience challenges pertaining to menstruation, a stark reality that women face on a monthly basis. This could be attributed to the lack of support by employers, as a survey revealed that only 19 percent of women felt supported for menstrual-related issues in the workplace. Women also suffer from other disorders during this time, including endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), autoimmune conditions, and more.
Early to mid-career: residency and beyond
Personal challenges
During this time, the majority of women decide if they want to commit to a partner and engage in family planning. Studies also show that 60 percent of women who live with a partner report having the greatest household responsibility.
Women often face the “motherhood penalty,” a term used to describe a mother in the workplace as unfit for leadership roles, considered less committed to their careers, receiving lower salaries, and denied opportunities pertaining to career advancement. The existing economic model favors the “ideal employee,” which is a person who is free of domestic and family obligations and who is able to dedicate long hours to uninterrupted work. Women with children may have to choose between their career development or motherhood, often creating a dissonance that is harmful to a woman’s physical and personal health. Unable to accommodate this ideal employee model, mothers are forced to take career breaks, work fewer hours, or leave the workforce indefinitely, which hinders career advancement. Women coming back from giving birth also face challenges, as workplaces often do not have the infrastructure to support lactation.
Professional challenges
The middle of a woman’s career often coincides with the peak of her professional development. Unfortunately, women in this part of their careers still have to advocate for themselves as capable of leadership positions.
Physical challenges
Many women physicians face infertility and endure the emotional and financial toll it takes on their lives. Accommodating countless doctor appointments, blood draws, and ultrasounds amidst busy clinical schedules and unforgiving corporate health care systems takes an emotional toll on women physicians across specialties. This means that optimal reproductivity for a woman comes at a sensitive time that forces women to prioritize their career or their reproductive goals – something men do not have to consider. It is no surprise that women have higher burnout rates than men in many specialties, as they bear the brunt of the physiological and occupational burdens of physically taxing occupations.
Mid to late-career: end years before retirement
Personal challenges
This period of life is often when women have children who require their attention during their formative years. Most parents in this phase will attest to the countless school commitments, social obligations, and extracurriculars that require transportation and planning, often by the default parent. While parents are raising their kids, their own parents are aging, and so come the responsibilities of the sandwich generation…tending to their children and to their parents, often at the sake of their own well-being.
Professional challenges
It is during this period of life that many gender inequities come full circle as women must again advocate for why they deserve top leadership positions such as department chairpersons, corporate roles, and other top academic positions within the medical system. Senior career women are often deemed inadequate leadership material if they have stepped away from their careers at any point to tend to their families.
Physical challenges
Women report embarrassment and stigma associated with menopause. They often suffer through symptoms silently as they are hesitant about how they will be perceived.
On the brink of pink
Whether for personal or financial reasons, everyone should be concerned about women’s health in the workplace. For corporations, this means capitalizing on the potential financial gain women are capable of producing if given the proper equitable foundation. In the World Economic Forum in 2024, they provided data to show that investing in women’s health showed a net positive return on investment. They highlight that for every $1 invested, $3 is projected in economic growth, demonstrating that women are more than competent enough to add to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the U.S. economy.
Statistics show that women are powerful entities at home despite holding the same positions in the workforce. Studies show that women continue to hold the greatest number of household duties and responsibilities, including caregiving and domestic tasks, even though they work the same number of hours as men.
The United States and its health care system need to pay more attention to women’s health to continue to thrive economically.
Women are always on the “brink of pink” because we are at a disadvantage personally, professionally, and physically. We are forced to fight an uphill battle throughout our careers. However, when datasets provide evidence that not only do women meet expectations or even exceed expectations, the workforce accepts our accomplishments as is. It grossly neglects the factors and challenges on a personal, professional and physical level women have to go through. We hope to change this narrative and bring awareness to the journey women traverse through in order to break down barriers for the next generation.
Stephanie Chan is a medical student. Alopi Patel is an anesthesiologist and interventional pain physician.
