Analysis of gender-based differences among surgeons in Japan: results of a survey conducted by the Japan Surgical Society. Part. 2: personal life

Kawase, Kazumi; Nomura, Kyoko; Tominaga, Ryuji; Iwase, Hirotaka; Ogawa, Tomoko; Shibasaki, Ikuko; Shimada, Mitsuo; Taguchi, Tomoaki; Takeshita, Emiko; Tomizawa, Yasuko; Nomura, Sachiyo; Hanazaki, Kazuhiro; Hanashi, Tomoko; Yamashita, Hiroko; Kokudo, Norihiro; Maeda, Kotaro

doi:10.1007/s00595-017-1586-7

Cited by 25 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The first theme, derived from one qualitative study (20 participants) 10 and ten quantitative cross-sectional surveys (183 to 6880 participants), 8,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] was the influence of a medical career on decisions and priorities related to motherhood, including decisions about whether to have children, and when and how many, as well as the ongoing effect of a medical career on a woman's family (Supporting Information, table 2).…”

Section: Motherhood: the Impact Of Being A Doctor On Raising Childrenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several studies found that a medical career could have a negative impact on family life and relationships. 8,[14][15][16][17]19 For example, two US studies identified that the working hours of women surgeons caused family strain; 16,17 another found that 2071 of 5582 female doctors (37%) believed that their career negatively affected relationships with their children. 15 Similarly, 36 of 91 female dermatologists with children (40%) felt that they had missed their children's milestones because of their careers.…”

Section: Motherhood: the Impact Of Being A Doctor On Raising Childrenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The second theme, derived from 17 quantitative studies (32 to 10 866 participants) 8,13,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][32][33][34] and one qualitative study (eight participants), 31 was the impact of being a mother on working as a doctor (Supporting Information, table 3).…”

Section: Medicine: the Impact Of Being A Mother On A Medical Careermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The number of hours worked after maternity leave was influenced by childcare availability, personal and family preferences, and working arrangements. 8,19,27,28,34 A Japanese survey (224 respondents) found that 38% of female surgeons changed their work plans to accommodate childcare; further, acute childhood illnesses, educational activities, and parenting responsibilities affected decisions about work, and 11% had resigned their jobs. 27 Time required for parenting also affected working hours.…”

Section: Medicine: the Impact Of Being A Mother On A Medical Careermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Motherhood and medicine: systematic review of the experiences of mothers who are doctors

Hoffman

Mullan

Nguyen

et al. 2020

Medical Journal of Australia

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ncreasing numbers of women are graduating in medicine in Australia 1 and overseas. 2,3 This has led to a "feminisation of medicine", 4 and concerns have been expressed that women work fewer hours than men, primarily because of family commitments. 5 Such criticism focuses on the competing demands of being mothers and doctors, and the career breaks taken by women to care for children. 4 Balancing the two roles can be challenging. Doctors must prioritise patient care, often to the detriment of their own needs and those of their families. 6,7 Motherhood can be as personally rewarding as medicine, and similarly requires placing another person's needs before one's own. 8 In this systematic review, we identify what is known about women balancing motherhood and medicine by examining the published research into their experiences and perspectives. Methods Search strategy Our systematic review was prospectively registered with PROSPERO on 30 April 2019 (CRD42019116228). We searched the CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Scopus databases in November 2019 for relevant published studies with the same search string: female/women AND doctor*/physician*/clinician* AND family OR child* OR mother* OR parent AND "family work relationships" OR "work life balance" OR "work home culture" (Supporting Information, table 1). Study selection and data extraction The titles and abstracts of articles identified by our search were screened by two authors (RH, MN), and the full text of relevant articles were then assessed according to our inclusion criteria: Articles were excluded if doctors were not explicitly objects of the study, sex was not a variable in the study, or motherhood or parental experiences were not reviewed. Disagreements about inclusion were resolved by consensus between the two authors. Screening identified 101 potentially relevant articles. After excluding nine because no English language versions were available, 43 not specifically related to motherhood or medicine, one undergraduate study not about doctors, and twelve non-research articles, 35 original research studies were included in our systematic review (Box 1). Thematic analysis We undertook an integrative review synthesis of the included research studies. Information was categorised according to emergent themes and synthesised. A quantitative meta-analysis was not attempted because of marked differences between studies in the outcomes and variables assessed. Results Nineteen of the 35 research studies (32 quantitative, three qualitative studies) were from the United States, and three each from Japan and Germany. The quantitative studies were either cross-sectional surveys or longitudinal in design (32 to 10 866 participants each) from specific specialities to large multi-centre studies. The qualitative studies included focus groups and semistructured interviews (eight to twenty participants each) (Box 2; Supporting Information, tables 2-4).

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Section: Motherhood: the Impact Of Being A Doctor On Raising Childrenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Motherhood: the Impact Of Being A Doctor On Raising Childrenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Medicine: the Impact Of Being A Mother On A Medical Careermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Medicine: the Impact Of Being A Mother On A Medical Careermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Motherhood and medicine: systematic review of the experiences of mothers who are doctors

Hoffman

Mullan

Nguyen

et al. 2020

Medical Journal of Australia

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“…According to another survey on housework conducted by the Japan Surgical Society, male surgeons, with or without children, spent the same amount of time on housework. Female surgeons, with or without children, spent longer hours on housework than male surgeons (Kawase et al 2018). In that study, female surgeons aged 30 to 39 years with children spent the longest time on housework.…”

Section: Income Marriage and Parenthood Of Female Surgeons In Modermentioning

confidence: 72%

Role Modeling for Female Surgeons in Japan

Tomizawa

2019

Tohoku J. Exp. Med.

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Japan is still a patriarchal society. There is an increasing number of female doctors who wish to follow a career path in surgery. This new generation of female surgeons need support not only in their career but also in work-life balance, especially after they have a family. We founded the Japan Association of Women Surgeons (JAWS) with the aims to advance females in surgery by providing networking and to develop leadership, mentorship, education, expertise and advocacy. This article describes our philosophy and activities, and our concept of role modeling. To find a single perfect role model is impossible in Japan, because lifestyle and family situations are quite different among individuals. Many young doctors in Japan find difficulties in identifying role models appropriate to their own situations. Our concept of remote role modeling is to identify multiple outstanding persons with excellent roles that one wishes to emulate; classify them by field of work, lifestyle, family situations, and others; then select the parts that one needs and assemble them to customize one's own ideal role model. This type of role modeling is probably the most practical approach. While modern technology is good for communication, meeting role models in person at meetings and social occasions is important in building an ideal role model.

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Surgical Experience Disparity Between Male and Female Surgeons in Japan

et al. 2022

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IMPORTANCEWomen are vastly underrepresented in surgical leadership and management in Japan. The lack of equal opportunities for surgical training is speculated to be the main reason for this disparity; however, this hypothesis has not been investigated thus far.OBJECTIVE To examine gender disparity in the number of surgical experiences among Japanese surgeons. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTSThis retrospective, multicenter cross-sectional study used data from the National Clinical Database, which contains more than 95% of all surgical procedures in Japan. Participants included male and female gastroenterological surgeons who performed appendectomy, cholecystectomy, right hemicolectomy, distal gastrectomy, low anterior resection, and pancreaticoduodenectomy between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2017.EXPOSURES Differences in the number of surgical experiences between male and female surgeons. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURESThe primary outcomes were the total number of operations and number of operations per surgeon by gender and years of experience. Data were analyzed from March 18 to August 31, 2021.RESULTS Of 1 147 068 total operations, 83 354 (7.27%) were performed by female surgeons and 1 063 714 (92.73%) by male surgeons. Among the 6 operative procedures, the percentage of operations performed by female surgeons were the highest for appendectomy (n = 20 648 [9.83%]) and cholecystectomy (n = 41 271 [7.89%]) and lowest for low anterior resection (n = 4507 [4.57%]) and pancreaticoduodenectomy (n = 1329 [2.64%]). Regarding the number of operations per surgeon, female surgeons had fewer surgical experiences for all 6 types of operations in all years after registration, except for appendectomy and cholecystectomy in the first 2 years after medical registration. The largest gender disparity for each surgical procedure was 3.17 times more procedures for male vs female surgeons for appendectomy (at 15 years after medical registration), 4.93 times for cholecystectomy (at 30-39 years), 3.65 times for right hemicolectomy (at 30-39 years), 3.02 times for distal gastrectomy (at 27-29 years), 6.75 times for low anterior resection (at 27-29 years), and 22.2 times for pancreaticoduodenectomy (at 30-39 years). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCEThis cross-sectional study found that female surgeons had less surgical experience than male surgeons in Japan, and this gap tended to widen with an increase in years of experience, especially for medium-and high-difficulty operations. Gender disparity in surgical experience needs to be eliminated, so that female surgeons can advance to leadership positions.

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Analysis of gender-based differences among surgeons in Japan: results of a survey conducted by the Japan Surgical Society. Part. 2: personal life

Abstract: The personal lives of Japanese surgeons differed significantly according to gender and whether they have children. The conservative idea that women should bear primary responsibility for the family still pertains for both men and women working as surgeons in Japan.

Cited by 25 publications

References 15 publications

Motherhood and medicine: systematic review of the experiences of mothers who are doctors

Motherhood and medicine: systematic review of the experiences of mothers who are doctors

Role Modeling for Female Surgeons in Japan

Surgical Experience Disparity Between Male and Female Surgeons in Japan

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