Career Pursuits of Female Graduates of a Private Medical College and their Hurdles

Abstract

Background:

There is a global shortage of health workforce. Females do not continue their careers due to a number of reasons. This study aims to find out the career pursuits of female doctors & their associated hurdles.

Methods:

After approval from IRB, this analytical cross-sectional study was conducted on 255 female doctors who graduated from a private medical college in Lahore from July to December 2022. Simple random sampling was done after getting lists of graduated female doctors from the medical college. The self-structured questionnaire consisted of sociodemographic data, hurdles of career pursuits, and harassment at the workplace. Data were entered and analyzed by SPSS version 23, and the chi-square test was applied to find an association between the hurdles in practicing and non-practicing female graduates. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results:

255 participants were included in the study. Out of which 222 were practicing. 36(14%) experienced harassment at the workplace. The most frequently faced hurdles for career pursuits were less pay, increased workload, difficulty to take time off, and difficulty to give time to family.

Conclusion:

81.7% of the female graduates of the college were working but are facing hurdles during their careers. Harassment in the workplace is common even in the medical profession. There is a lack of support from the family or in-laws, the expectation from women to be the homemaker, and women feeling guilty about prioritizing their careers over their children and family life.