What Keeps Women Representation Low In Radiology?

While women make up for a considerable number in Indian medical education India, the number of women radiologists is minuscule.

Most experts believe that diversity among healthcare practitioners is important for representing the increasingly diverse Indian patient population they serve. Diversity promotes broader experience, different perspectives and encourages innovations. It also leads to higher performance and a competitive advantage. Then why does radiology have a long-standing history of having the lowest women representation among all medical specialities? What’s keeping women healthcare professionals from opting such an important medical disciple?

Express Healthcare spoke to different medical professionals to understand their fears, challenges and expectations from radiology practice

Female medical students, in their formative years, need to be exposed to women radiologists in strong leadership roles

Radiology, as a post gradu-ate branch, continues to be a top draw among medical graduates. Though there are just a handful of seats at the pan-national level, radiology remains a highly coveted branch.

In the 1990s, there were few women medical graduates whose first choice was radiology.

Thankfully, that trend is changing now with more female doctors entering this field. Compared to traditional disciplines such as gynaecology and paediatrics, however, radiology still remains largely a male-dominated field.

Why is this so? What are the barriers that prevent women from taking up radiology as a career and what can professionals in this field do to change that?

As a female radiologist myself, currently helming the division of ultrasound, X-ray and breast imaging at Wockhardt Hospital, South Mumbai, there a few actionable reasons for the above and also some myths which need to be urgently dispelled.