Ep130: “The motherhood penalty”

Despite filling more than half of places in Australian medical schools, women represent 45 per cent of all medical practitioners and just 36 per cent of specialists. Female representation dwindles further in many areas of clinical leadership, prompting what has been termed a “leaky pipeline”. It has been reported that women would progress at similar rates to men, and achieve similar remuneration, were it not for the time taken out from the profession to raise children. In this podcast we discuss what it would take to mitigate this so-called “motherhood penalty” through policy, workplace culture and better distribution of labour in the home. This discussion is important because it relates not just to the wellbeing and rights of individual medics, but also to the depth and diversity of the workforce.a

Chapters
1:38 Better support for return to work
9:09 Workforce effects and workplace flexibility
19:56 The “motherhood penalty” on career progression
33:52 Broader societal biases

Guests
Associate Professor Kara Allen FANZCA (Royal Melbourne Hospital; University of Melbourne)
Dr Jenny Proimos FRACP (Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne; Monash Centre for Health Research and Innovation;

Production
Produced by Mic Cavazzini DPhil. Music licenced from Epidemic Sound includes ‘Melting Places’ by Andres Cantú, ‘Not Blue’ by Kylie Dailey. Music courtesy of Free Music Archive includes ‘Good Days’ by Cody Francis, ‘Planting Flags’ by Blue Dot Sessions,  ‘Helice’ by Monplaisir, ‘Feeling Minnesota by Gavin Luke, and ‘Maybe This Time’ by Major Tweaks. Image by George Peters licenced through Getty Images. 

Editorial feedback kindly provided by RACP physicians Zac Fuller, Aidan Tan, Joseph Lee, David Skalicky, and Stella Sarlos. Thanks also to RACP staff Arnika Martus and Kathryn Smith and also to Sarah Anderson of La Trobe University for guiding me through some of the AIHW data.

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