During an interview for a job earlier in my career, a man once asked me if I was married. When I said yes, he followed up with, “Does your husband work?” I told him he was a physician. “Well then,” he replied, “it doesn’t really matter how much money you make, because you have a husband who’s bringing home money as well.”
Stories like these, of course, are unfortunately far from atypical — in healthcare and the workforce more broadly. But medicine is particularly hierarchal, and COVID-19 has only exacerbated longstanding gender bias and inequities. Women doctors earn an estimated $2 million less than men over the course of their careers. Advancement is tougher, too: women in academic centers are 38% less likely to be promoted to full professor than men.
