Citizenship tasks tax women physicians

New Rochelle, NY, January 6, 2021–Women physicians feel pressured to spend more time in work-related citizenship tasks, based largely on their age and race. Nearly half of women perceived that they spent more time on citizenship tasks than their male colleagues, according to a study in Journal of Women’s Health. Click here to read the article now.

“When compared to their younger counterpart, women physicians older than 49 years stated to feel obligated to volunteer for these tasks because of their age,” state Priscila Armijo, MD, University of Nebraska Medical Center, and coauthors. “We also found that a higher proportion of women of color physicians perceived race as a factor in feeling obligated to volunteer for work-related citizenship tasks, when compared to white women physicians.”

In the accompanying editorial entitled, “Abolish the Minority Woman Tax!” José Rodríguez, MD, University of Utah Health, Family and Preventive Medicine, and coauthors write: “The specific obstacles faced by underrepresented minority (URM) faculty in academic medicine are best described as a system of disparities or taxes. URM faculty take on additional work, including diversity efforts land clinical responsibilities, while experiencing the challenges of racism, isolation, disparate compensation, and a lack of mentorship. This minority women tax is an additional injustice that must be named, acknowledged, and eliminated.”

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Journal of Women’s Health, published monthly, is a core multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the diseases and conditions that hold greater risk for or are more prevalent among women, as well as diseases that present differently in women. Led by Editor-in-Chief Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women’s Health, Richmond, VA, the Journal covers the latest advances and clinical applications of new diagnostic procedures and therapeutic protocols for the prevention and management of women’s healthcare issues. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Women’s Health website. Journal of Women’s Health is the official journal of the Society for Women’s Health Research.

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research. A complete list of the firm’s 90 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.