Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign, Stanford University, 318 Campus Drive, E100, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.
Ann Biomed Eng. 2020 May;48(5):1573-1586. doi: 10.1007/s10439-020-02478-0. Epub 2020 Feb 20.
Gender diversity has been linked to positive business results. Yet limited data exist to characterize the gender landscape in health technology, a field that draws employees from both biomedical engineering and medicine. To better understand the state of gender diversity in this industry, we developed a survey to explore leadership representation and perceptions of workplace equality, job satisfaction, and work-life balance. Data from 400 + health technology professionals revealed that women are significantly underrepresented in senior leadership and that men and women experience the workplace differently. Men believe in greater numbers than females that senior leaders are focused on recruiting and promoting women, promotion criteria are equitable, and the major barrier to leadership roles for women is work/family balance. In contrast, women perceive a less meritocratic and inclusive workplace in which their ability to rise is hampered by exclusion from influential communication networks and stereotyping/bias. Perhaps as a result, more than one-third of female respondents are considering leaving their current jobs, citing dissatisfaction with management and a desire for greater advancement opportunities. This study highlights significant gender perception differences in health technology that require further study and proactive remediation for the field to fully realize the benefits of gender diversity.
性别多样性与积极的商业成果相关。然而，在医疗技术领域，只有有限的数据可以描述性别状况，该领域既需要生物医学工程专业的员工，也需要医学专业的员工。为了更深入地了解这个行业的性别多样性，我们开发了一项调查，以探索领导代表性和对工作场所平等、工作满意度和工作与生活平衡的看法。来自 400 多名医疗技术专业人员的数据表明，女性在高级领导层中的代表性严重不足，而且男性和女性对工作场所的看法不同。男性比女性更相信高级领导更加关注招聘和提拔女性，晋升标准是公平的，女性担任领导角色的主要障碍是工作/家庭平衡。相比之下，女性认为工作场所的等级制度和包容性较差，她们的晋升机会受到排斥于有影响力的沟通网络和刻板印象/偏见的阻碍。因此，超过三分之一的女性受访者正在考虑离开目前的工作岗位，理由是对管理层不满，希望获得更多晋升机会。这项研究突出了医疗技术领域中存在显著的性别认知差异，这需要进一步研究和积极纠正，以使该领域充分实现性别多样性的优势。
