Professional barriers experienced by South Asian women in academic anesthesia

Excerpt

Gender inequity in medicine is a global issue, and is most evident in women’s under-representation in leadership roles, promotions, and awards.¹ Literature from high-income countries has reported barriers to academic career advancement, including fewer opportunities, lack of female mentors, and the traditional perspective about gender roles in childcare.² There is a paucity of literature relating to gender equity among anesthesiologists from South Asian countries, a region representing 20% of the world’s population. In a recent international survey, women anesthesiologists in lower-income countries (including South Asia) perceived their gender to be less of a disadvantage in taking on departmental leadership positions or doing research than respondents from high-income and upper-middle-income countries.³ To help address the above knowledge void, we conducted a voluntary, anonymous, cross-sectional survey in July and August 2021, the results of which informed a presentation we made at the recent World Congress of Anaesthesiologists that took place virtually 1–5 September 2021, in a session titled “Is there Gender Parity in Anaesthesia?” In the present article, we share our survey findings with the readers of this month’s Special Issue of the Journal and reflect on them in the context of the cultural and sociopolitical background faced by South Asian women physicans. …