Is Empowerment of Female Radiologists Still Needed? Findings of a Systematic Review

Abstract

Considering that radiology is still a male-dominated specialty in which men make up more than two thirds of the workforce, this systematic review aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of the current role of women in radiological imaging, focusing on the main aspects such as career progression, leadership, academic practice, and perceived discrimination. Three electronic databases were searched up to 21 October 2020. To identify additional records, weekly automatic email alerts were set up on PubMed until December 2020 and reference lists of key studies and included papers were screened. Two reviewers independently performed the search, study selection, quality appraisal, data extraction, and formal narrative synthesis. In case of disagreement, a third reviewer was involved. Across the 61 included articles, women worked more often part-time and held fewer positions of power in hospitals, on editorial boards, and at the academic level (associate and full professors). Women were less often in relevant positions in scientific articles, had fewer publications, and had a lower H-index. Discrimination and sexual harassment were experienced by up to 40% and 47% of female radiologists, respectively. Our study highlights that women in radiology are still underrepresented and play a marginal role in the field, struggling to reach top and leading positions.

Navigating the glass labyrinth: Addressing gender diversity in Australian and New Zealand representative radiology leadership

“…Instead, it is more commonly the result of unconscious bias at an organisational, institutional and personal level, compounded by social challenges related to balance between work and home responsibilities, visibility of women leaders and mentorship. 5,13 When considering career progression and representative leadership in the context of gender, the metaphor of the 'leaky pipeline' has been used to denote the unequal loss of women along the leadership pathway when compared to contemporary men. [13][14][15] This model is thought to account for the phenomenon of seeing greater gender For our RANZCR leadership data, the tier group with the most gender diverse representation is the RANZCR Faculty Council level; however, the proportion of women representative College Fellows remained below workforce parity.…”

“…There is increasing literature calling for greater utilisation of mentorship and sponsorship within radiology, especially among trainees and junior faculty members. 4,5,26,[28][29][30] The RANZCR faculty of CR does not currently have a formal mentoring programme in place; however, such programmes exist for trainees at some accredited training sites and in the RANZCR Faculty of Radiation Oncology for trainees and junior consultants. 31 While valuable to have women mentors and sponsors available to work with more junior women mentees, this is often difficult due to underrepresentation of women mentors.…”

“…3 Beyond workforce demographics, there is even more marked gender inequity among representative leadership within radiology as a specialty. 2,4,5 Over nearly four decades, metaphorical 'glass' structures have been used to denote the often-invisible challenges and barriers which women disproportionately face in their professional lives. 6 'Glass ceilings' described when women would be promoted through their professional ranks until they could rise no more, and 'glass cliffs' denoted the phenomenon whereby women are disproportionately promoted to precarious leadership positions at greater risk of hardship or failure.…”

Diversity and perception of equity and respect in the Society of Skeletal Radiology (SSR)

“…There was no difference in perceptions of URiM radiologists to be treated with lower respect by colleagues or patients; however, our analyses were limited by the small number of URiM respondents. A systematic review of women in radiology has shown that between 40 and 47% of women radiologists face discrimination and sexual harassment [19]. The role of the SSR is to foster an inclusive and welcoming environment and to continue to raise awareness of diversity within the SSR and within musculoskeletal radiology.…”

Empowering Patients and Supporting Health Care Providers—New Avenues for High Quality Care and Safety

“…The authors urge health professions educators and institutions to create a learning culture by integrating patient safety education and training in the curricula of aspiring healthcare professionals and to guarantee that the influential hidden curriculum better reflects the elements of the explicit curriculum. Finally, Fichera and colleagues [ 31 ] draw our attention to the still existing gender inequalities in clinical and academic radiology and underline the importance of empowering female radiologists, which may lead to improved professional and emotional well-being and better performance of the entire healthcare system.…”