From Exclusion to Glass Ceiling: A History of Women in Neonatal Medicine

Abstract

The 21st century’s medicine is predominantly female: two thirds of medical students now are women. In 375 BCE, Plato argued for equal education for male and female professions, explicitly physicians. In Greece and Rome, tombstones testify for patients’ gratitude to women physicians. Christianization opened an era of female subordination. When universities established faculties of medicine during the 13th century, women were excluded and had no place where they could study medicine. Since 1850, female medical studies have been debated. Zürich admitted women from 1864, Paris from 1866. Up until the 1920s, treatment of newborns – especially preterm infants – was in the domain of obstetricians. When pediatricians accepted responsibility for sick newborns, women founded hospitals and public health facilities for infants. After WW2, women took leading roles in research. Their share within pediatrics increased from below 10% to above 60%. But they achieved less than 20% of full professor or chair positions in Europe and less than 35% in the US. Female neonatologists reached fewer positions in editorial boards, authorships, h-factors, keynote lectures, and research grants than did male colleagues. Women pediatricians earned 24% less than did male colleagues. When adjusted for labor force characteristics, the pay gap was still 13%. Women can augment their career chances by setting targets, seeking mentorship, and strengthening self-confidence. Women’s careers should be effectively accelerated by institutional support: research offers, part-time work, paid research time, maternity/paternity leave, and support for childcare. Research-oriented neonatology cannot afford to lose female talents.