The German Medical Association has again contributed to the topic of “working during pregnancy”. In the last MWIA update, we showed data from a survey on working during pregnancy, and now we can present the results of another survey from November and December 2022 on this topic. The results of this survey, which we as the Association of Women Physicians conducted together with other partners among 4800 female physicians and medical students, showed that women often feel pressured during pregnancy and receive too little support from their employer. About half of the female physicians surveyed had reservations about reporting their pregnancy to their employer. The main reasons for this are concerns about having to accept restrictions on further training as a specialist, a ban on operations, and other prohibitions on activities. Many female physicians would like to continue working during their pregnancy, but are prevented from doing so. Most of the employment bans occurred in the period of the Corona Virus pandemic between 2020 and 2022. Almost half of the participants received a company employment ban from their employer, and more than a third experienced activity restriction. Further information (unfortunately only in German) can be found here:
https://www.aerztinnenbund.de/Karriereknick_durch_Schwangerschaft.3914.0.2.html.
Another project in recent months has been the initiative ‘more #womenphysicians on stage’! In order to strengthen the visibility of female physicians and women in the healthcare sector, the platform speakerinnen.org as well as the Round Table “Women in Healthcare” launched the campaign ” Women Physicians on Stage”. The alliance calls on all female experts in medicine and healthcare to register with their expertise at Speakerinnen.org. In this way, female physicians of all specialties, dentists and all other representatives of the medical professions and relevant organizations can be found more easily by event organizers or journalists in the future. With regard to the appointment to the top positions of the committees in Germany, we are pleased to report that two female vice-presidents and one additional female physician were elected to the board of the German Medical Associations. This is a signal to the state medical associations for more women at the top. In addition, our Vice President PD Dr. med. Barbara Puhahn-Schmeiser was fortunately newly elected to the Board of Top Women in Health. We are pleased about this opportunity to continue to work towards more gender equality in this strong association of female experts from various areas of the health care system.