Alcalde-Rubio, L., Hernández-Aguado, I., Parker, L.A. et al. Gender disparities in clinical practice: are there any solutions? Scoping review of interventions to overcome or reduce gender bias in clinical practice. Int J Equity Health 19, 166 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-020-01283-4
- This article, titled Gender disparities in clinical practice: are there any solutions? Scoping review of interventions to overcome or reduce gender bias in clinical practice, revolved around the authors research trying to determine if there are any possible solutions to the gender biases that exist in the medical world. To figure out if there are viable results, the researchers included and compared studies that had implemented various potential solutions and perused the collected data to reach their conclusions. The studies varied according to health issues, country, description of intervention, etc. There were 22 different types of interventions being researched and most of them had varying successes in attempting to make the healthcare field less gender biased, but four of the studies were unable to accomplish this.
I think this article focused more on the potential solutions for ways to intervene in the gender bias that permeates the healthcare field, but it did not go into detail about what each of these studies did. To incorporate this article into my research, I am going to include it in the end to prove that there are ways in which the gender gap can be narrowed, the correct interventions just have to be pursued in order to help.
2. I chose to expand on Emily’s response to “The Subtle Sexism of Your Open Office Plan” because she speaks about how her experiences working in the open office environment escalated her anxiety due to the extreme lack of privacy at her work. Instead of having private spaces, the entire facility lacked any kind special areas where a worker could be alone even if it was just for a few minutes. Emily realized after a few months that all of her female coworkers also experienced this and that all of them had also found a private space near their office building where they could find privacy. This response really illustrated the experiences women have in the open office concept regarding mental health. The author of the article spoke about how the glass offices with no privacy made female workers feel as though they are under a microscope and Emily’s experience confirmed that. Mental health is something that should be taken much more seriously and if most women cannot even feel safe and comfortable at work, then the open office concept should not be considered a good thing.
Caitlin,
You make an excellent point about mental health and not feeling safe at the office. I was reading an article that said studies shows a clear link between sexism and young women’s mental ill health including long-term impact, and therefore the urgent need to tackle sexism in all its forms and locations from the earliest point possible is critical
Young women who experience sexism are five times more likely to suffer from clinical depression. The higher rate of mental ill health compares to those who said they had not experienced sexism.
I think the impact clearly goes beyond the “walls” or lack of them in the new office format. This issue should be addressed because the consequences of ignoring it may be problematic well into the future. If employers don’t want to do it because it’s the right thing to do then let’s consider the lower productivity of employees (both males and females).
Reference:
https://www.youngwomenstrust.org/our-research/impact-sexism-young-womens-mental-health/
As we’ve been seeing in a variety of sectors and news stories lately, it can be challenging to get folks to take mental health seriously. Raising that issue in the context of this conversation about workspaces is critically important. And you’re absolutely right, Ed–ignoring these concerns doesn’t make them go away. In fact, it tends to increase the ripple effects….
A solid start with the annotation, Caitlin, though I’d be interested to hear a bit more about the interventions the researchers examined. It would also be helpful to hear more from you about how/whether you think others should make use of these recommendations. If you can develop this a bit further, it will be easier to appreciate the value that this text provides.