Cancerworld Magazine
  • About the Magazine
    • About us
    • Editorial Team
    • Events
    • Archive
    • Contacts
  • Articles
    • Policy
    • Practice Points
    • Delivery of Care
    • Biology basic
    • Medicine
    • Featured
  • Contents
    • News
    • Editorials
    • Interviews to the Expert
    • In the Hot Seat
    • Profiles
    • Obituaries
    • Voices
  • ESCO Corner
SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Cancerworld Magazine
Cancerworld Magazine
  • About the Magazine
    • About us
    • Editorial Team
    • Events
    • Archive
    • Contacts
  • Articles
    • Policy
    • Practice Points
    • Delivery of Care
    • Biology basic
    • Medicine
    • Featured
  • Contents
    • News
    • Editorials
    • Interviews to the Expert
    • In the Hot Seat
    • Profiles
    • Obituaries
    • Voices
  • ESCO Corner
Cancerworld Magazine > News > Careers of women in oncology hit by Covid-19 pandemic
  • News

Careers of women in oncology hit by Covid-19 pandemic

  • 2 September 2021
  • Swagata Yadavar
Careers of women in oncology hit by Covid-19 pandemic
Total
0
Shares
0
0
0
0
0

The pandemic has seen the careers of female physicians working in oncology suffer as they have taken on more domestic responsibilities during lockdowns. Recent studies have indicated the trend may be global and long lasting.

A new paper published in JCO Global Oncology showed that the pandemic had an adverse impact on careers on female physicians in India. A survey of more than 1000 Indian physicians found that 90% of female physicians reported an increase in domestic responsibilities during the lockdown compared to 82% of male physicians.

Meanwhile, a survey by the Women for Oncology Committee of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) has concluded that the Covid-19 pandemic may have had a long-term impact on careers of female oncologists. It found that, of the 649 respondents, 83% said the pandemic had affected them negatively, with 85% of women reporting negative impact compared to 76% of men.

The picture in India

The Indian study was led by Sabita Jiwnani, Associate Professor at the Department of Surgical Oncology, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, who was prompted to conduct the survey based on her own experience and that of her peers.

The announcement of an Indian national Covid-19 lockdown on 23rd March 2020 caused a complete upheaval in Jiwnani’s life. Apart from her duties at the hospital, she now had to shoulder domestic chores.

Like many urban working women, Jiwnani had relied on household staff to help with cooking, household and driving tasks, but post-lockdown none of the staff could come to work. She found herself carrying out most of the domestic work at home as well as schooling her 10-year-old son.

“I was struggling to finish work at home, never mind being able to go to work,” said Jiwnani, whose husband, also a cancer surgeon, was supportive, she says, but “inept at household tasks”. Jiwnani says she managed from March to July, when the lockdown ended, by taking half- and full-days’ leave. This was feasible as, during these months, her hospital received half the number of patients they usually did, and had flexible work timings.

The survey she conducted found that her situation was replicated elsewhere, with a higher percentage of female than male physicians solely responsible for domestic chores (38.7% vs 23.7%) and for managing their children’s education (74% vs 31%).

Six out of ten female physicians in India felt that Covid-19 had had a negative impact on their professional work compared to four out of ten male physicians, according to the study.

Married women were almost twice as likely as married men to take leave, or work reduced hours, to cope with the added domestic burden (29.3% vs 15.9%). Twice as many women than men had to quit their jobs to manage their responsibilities at home (3.5% vs 1.5%).

The survey aimed to find out about the impact of the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown on domestic responsibilities of physicians, to evaluate whether there are gender-based differences and to understand the difficulties and challenges faced by physicians during this time. It was e-mailed to several thousand physicians who had previously attended oncology meetings organised by the Tata Memorial Centre, India’s leading cancer centre, and was also widely shared on WhatsApp by multiple physician groups.

Of the 1,041 responses received, 643 identified themselves as men and 393 as women.

Global picture

Similar results have been reported by global studies. The ESMO survey received 649 responses, of which two-thirds came from oncologists based in Europe (66%), with the remainder being based in Asia (17%), Central and Southern America (8%), North America (4%), Africa (3%) and Australia (1%).

That survey, published in ESMO Open, found that the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on female oncologists may be long term. In terms of the immediate impact, women were more likely than men to report that their personal life and their family life were impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic (89% vs 78% and 84% vs 77%, respectively).

Women were also more likely to report having spent an increased amount of time during lockdowns on hospital tasks (53% vs 46%) and laboratory tasks (33% vs 26%). They were also more likely than men to report having spent less time on science (39% vs 25%) and on personal care (58% vs 39%).

Significantly, this trend seems to have continued even after lockdowns ended, with 42% of women compared to 23% men spending less time on science and 55% of women compared to 36% men spending less time on personal care.

This may have long-lasting career consequences, especially for those women who are at key stages of their careers, the authors wrote. “The gender gap for promotion to leadership positions may widen further as a result of the pandemic,” they said.

Given that female oncologists are already under-represented in leadership roles and more slowly promoted to senior faculty positions, the loss of research time may affect careers of women in oncology, said the authors.

Jiwnani says there is a lot that hospitals can do to improve gender parity: paid maternity and paternity leave, providing supervised creches at workplaces, flexible working hours and flexibility to attend academic and administrative meetings remotely.

“More importantly, we need to recognise and appoint women as leaders, such as heads of clinical departments, in administration and human resource development departments, so that they better recognise and solve the difficulties that women employees face,” she said.

Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0
Related Topics
  • career
  • covid-19
  • gender gap
  • oncology
Swagata Yadavar

Swagata Yadavar is an award-winning independent journalist based in New Delhi. She writes on public policy, healthcare and gender related themes. Previously, she worked with IndiaSpend, India's first data journalism website and The Week, a national magazine.

Previous Article
  • News

Blood pressure drugs improve survival in colorectal cancer

  • 2 September 2021
  • Janet Fricker
View Post
Next Article
  • News

Low risk prostate cancer: real-world data reveals high rates of switching from surveillance to treatment

  • 10 September 2021
  • Janet Fricker
View Post
You May Also Like
View Post
  • News

Personalised neoantigen vaccine for kidney cancer shows promise in phase 1 study

  • Janet Fricker
  • 8 May 2025
View Post
  • News
  • Senza categoria

What Caught Our Eye in April: Oncology’s Top Moments

  • Yeva Margaryan
  • 7 May 2025
View Post
  • News

CancerWorld #102 (April 2025)

  • Yeva Margaryan
  • 22 April 2025
View Post
  • News
  • Senza categoria

What Caught Our Eye in March: Oncology’s Top Moments

  • Janet Fricker
  • 8 April 2025
View Post
  • News

Ovarian cancer: mechanism conferring resistance to immunotherapy revealed

  • Janet Fricker
  • 21 March 2025
View Post
  • News

Muscular strength and cardiorespiratory fitness improve survival in cancer patients

  • Janet Fricker
  • 20 March 2025
View Post
  • News

CancerWorld #101 (February 2025): The Must-Read Oncology Issue Returns to Print with Exclusive Interviews and Breakthroughs

  • Yeva Margaryan
  • 18 March 2025
View Post
  • News

Low-dose aspirin reduces colorectal cancer recurrence in patients with PI3K alterations

  • Janet Fricker
  • 6 March 2025
search
CancerWorld #101 Download CancerWorld #101 Download CancerWorld #101 Download or search in Cancerworld archive
Newsletter

Subscribe free to
Cancerworld!

We'll keep you informed of the latest features and news with a fortnightly email

Subscribe now
Latest News
  • Personalised neoantigen vaccine for kidney cancer shows promise in phase 1 study
    • 8 May 2025
  • What Caught Our Eye in April: Oncology’s Top Moments
    • 7 May 2025
  • CancerWorld #102 (April 2025)
    • 22 April 2025
  • What Caught Our Eye in March: Oncology’s Top Moments
    • 8 April 2025
  • Ovarian cancer: mechanism conferring resistance to immunotherapy revealed
    • 21 March 2025
Article
  • Miriam Merad and the 2025 Sjöberg Prize: A Celebration of Innovation in Cancer Immunotherapy
    • 6 May 2025
  • Istanbul, Ankara take action on HPV vaccination, as government delays promised national programme
    • 1 April 2025
  • Could this dual approach be the frontier that finally gets immunotherapy to work for MSS colorectal cancer?
    • 31 March 2025
Social

Would you follow us ?

Contents
  • Miriam Merad and the 2025 Sjöberg Prize: A Celebration of Innovation in Cancer Immunotherapy
    • 6 May 2025
  • “I really care about people.” – Philip Kantoff, A Life in Science and Medicine
    • 5 May 2025
  • What If the World’s Leading Prostate Cancer Epidemiologist Opened a Restaurant? A Conversation with Lorelei Mucci- A Harvard Scientist, A Mother, A Leader
    • 23 April 2025
MENU
  • About the Magazine
    • About us
    • Editorial Team
    • Events
    • Archive
    • Contacts
  • Articles
    • Policy
    • Practice Points
    • Delivery of Care
    • Biology basic
    • Medicine
    • Featured
  • Contents
    • News
    • Editorials
    • Interviews to the Expert
    • In the Hot Seat
    • Profiles
    • Obituaries
    • Voices
  • ESCO Corner
Cancerworld Magazine
  • About us
  • Articles
  • Media Corner
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy

Cancerworld is published by OncoDaily (P53 Inc.) | Mailing Address: 867 Boylston st, 5th floor, Ste 1094 Boston, MA 02116, United States | [email protected]

Archivio Cancerworld

Input your search keywords and press Enter.