Highlights
- •Our study addresses the question of whether or not there are there gender-based inequities for physicians of pediatric rehabilitation medicine, and, if affirmative, what factors contribute to these differences.
- •Our study performing surveys of the field demonstrated statistically significant differences between men and women.
- •Practice- and research-based gender inequities exist for physicians of pediatric rehabilitation medicine.
Abstract
Objective
To assess whether gender inequities exist for pediatric physiatrists and, if affirmative,
what factors account for this difference.
Design
Cohort study.
Setting
Online REDCap survey administered via e-mail.
Participants
Pediatric physiatrists practicing in the United States in 2017.
Interventions
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures
Respondents reported on their gender, training, practice type and location, leadership
positions, years in practice and years at their current location, salary, research,
and clinical productivity.
Results
Of the 307 surveys sent, 235 individuals responded, yielding a response rate of 76.5%.
Pediatric physiatrists who identified as women were more likely to work part-time
but were demographically similar to their colleagues who identified as men. The odds
of having no leadership role were higher for women (odds ratio=2.17; P=.02) than men. Pediatric physiatrists who identified as men made on average (in US
dollars ± SD) 244,798±52,906 annually compared with those who identified as women
224,497±60,756. The average annual difference in full-time salary was $20,311 in favor
of those who identified as men (95% confidence interval, $3135-$37,486). The set of
predictors in the multivariable model explained about 40% of the total variability
in annual full-time salary (R2=0.389; adjusted R2=0.339; F15,197=7.734; P<.001). Gender was not a significant predictor in the model, but model prediction
of the salaries of pediatric physiatrists who identified as men was better than model
prediction of the salaries of those who identified as women.
Conclusions
Despite representing a majority of the field, pediatric physiatrists who identified
as women were paid less than their counterparts who identified as men. The traditional
predictors associated with the salaries of men were not enough to explain salary variation
among those who identified as women, thereby providing evidence of the importance
of intangible and unmeasured aspects of a women’s career, such as bias and institutional
culture.
Keywords
List of Abbreviations:
FTE (full-time equivalent), PRM (pediatric rehabilitation medicine), RVU (relative value unit)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 21, 2019
Footnotes
Disclosures: none.
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine
