Evaluations in residency also favor men. One study found that at the beginning of the residency, women residents were rated as slightly better on average than their male peers, but by the end of training were on average 3 to 4 months behind their male counterparts. Differences in residency evaluations have real consequences for physicians’ careers. They affect their selection in competitive fellowships, research awards, and even the licensing process.

Obstetric violence is institutional, gender-based violence, suffered by pregnant women at the hands of healthcare personnel. In a 2007 law, Venezuela said it includes dehumanised treatment, abuse of medication, and “the appropriation of the body and reproductive processes of women by health personnel… bringing with it loss of autonomy and the ability to decide freely about their bodies and sexuality.” In 2014, the World Health Organisation described disrespectful and abusive care during childbirth – including physical and verbal abuse, refusals of care and medication, and coercive or unconsented medical procedures – as human rights violations.

Researchers analyzed general industry payments, including research grants, consulting fees, and food and beverage expenses, accrued by 933,295 licensed physicians. Overall, they saw a notable gender difference in favor of male physicians in relation to engagement with industry. “These data are depressingly familiar”, said Ariane Hegewisch, program director of employment and earnings at the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Women’s Policy Research, who was not involved in the study.

It’s finally time to put the old stereotype about male doctors and female nurses away for good. According to new data this week from the Association of American Medical Colleges, female students outnumber male students in this year’s entering class at US medical schools, for the first time in history—and enrollment trends overall suggest there may well be more women in the medical field than men in the near future. Per the data, female matriculants (or enrollees) comprised 50.7% of the 21,338 people entering medical school this year. Female matriculants increased by 3.2% this year while male matriculants declined by 0.3%; what’s more, though, is that since 2015, the former group has increased by 4% while the latter has declined 6.7%.

But is it worse for women than men? A new study in JAMA Internal Medicine suggests yes. Dr. Constance Guille and colleagues analyzed the mental health of more than 3,100 newly minted doctors at 44 hospitals across the country. Before starting residency, men and women had similar levels of depressive symptoms. After six months on the job, both genders experienced a sharp rise in depression scores — but the effect was much more pronounced for women. A major reason: work-family conflict, which accounted for more than a third of the disparity.

“I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve been told not to pursue medicine, not to pursue a difficult specialty, or not to work full time if I wanted to have a family,” writes Dr. Natalie Crawford on Instagram. “It is shocking at first. It breaks your heart. It makes you think that maybe you can’t do it. Eventually, you carry on.”

Referrals dropped by 54 percent after a patient died at the hands of a female surgeon, but when it was a male surgeon whose patient died, there was only a small stagnation in the referrals the surgeon received from the doctor. What’s more, a good patient outcome (i.e., an unanticipated survival) led doctors to become more optimistic about a male surgeon’s ability, again using referral volumes after a surgery as the proxy for the doctors’ views of the surgeons’ talent. The same wasn’t true for female doctors.

The difficulty of having kids during residency appears to be discouraging women from becoming surgeons, researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston recently found in a survey of 347 active surgeons who had been pregnant during their residencies in the last decade. Just under half the surgeons surveyed said they considered quitting their residencies during pregnancy. About a third said they wouldn’t recommend that women in medical school become surgeons.

Health + Hospitals Corporation assistant vice president Al Garofalo polled several mostly male colleagues about who they would sleep with during a 2015 holiday party, according to sworn testimony given by a former IT director for HHC, James Gomez. The deposition was taken as part of a sexual harassment lawsuit being brought against the agency.

The number of female doctors in Canada has climbed dramatically over the past nearly 50 years. Women have gone from accounting for just seven per cent of physicians in 1970 to more than 40 per cent today, according to recent numbers released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.