Chief Medical Officer At Swedish Medical Center Shares What It Means To Be A Woman In Medicine

By Kate Housand

(CBS4) - CBS4 is celebrating women during this Women's History Month and highlighting the role of women in medicine. Women have made steady progress in what has historically been a male-dominated field, but still make up fewer than 40% of physicians.

Dr. Jaya Kumar is the Chief Medical Officer at Swedish Medical Center. She believes women have come a long way but work still needs to be done to balance the profession.

"About 70% of women report that they experience some form of discrimination throughout their career. Sexual harassment is a major one- about 30% of women in medicine experienced sexual harassment. And although 36% of women are physicians, only less than 10% are in leadership roles."

Dr. Kumar also believes that the general roles that women play in society can discourage women from staying the in the medical field.

"We as women bear the brunt of household chores, despite having a full-time career. So a lot of these factors play a role on why women get burned out and why they lead to aggression from the physician workforce and that is what we want to avoid today."

And while the steady increase of women in medicine helps to make the field of physicians more diverse, there are still many specialties not generally pursued by female physicians.

"There are a few specialties that are considered to be women-friendly, and there are some that are considered to be women unfriendly. So the proportion of women could be as high as 60% in some specialties and as low as 5% in some specialties."

She says that more women are needed in medical leadership positions and that more female mentors are needed for medical students in order to make the field of medicine more woman-friendly.

"If you have a good mentor, you tend to choose that specialty more so promoting women as mentors and sponsors in the medical field is very important for girls to become doctors."