An article by the New England Journal of Medicine published a study on the role that Social Media plays in having advanced women empowerment in the field of medicine. As technology advances, there are increasingly more ways to get visibility for and access to research.
For the first time since social customs opened healthcare practice to women in the US, incoming female medical students accounted for 51% of the total incoming medical student population. This is in direct correlation with the growth of the female populace in healthcare, many of whom rely on social media as a platform for communicating. While this was initially believed to be a by-product of the Information Age exclusive only to the younger population, the AAMC reports otherwise. Even the older generation have adapted well to the use of social media in their practice – transcending gender stereotypes and norms along the way.
More than merely for drawing in more patients, women physicians have employed social media as a tool for advancing the women empowerment agenda. They find themselves with access to an undiscriminating audience and they can deliver, eliminating the decade-old stereotype that women physicians were less competent and emotionally stable than their male counterparts.
Discrimination is likewise being allayed. With social media, female practitioners now have a larger platform with which to report instances of sexual harassment and discrimination. On standard, a study by Jagsi et al. in 2016 revealed that 30% of women in healthcare experienced being targets of unfair treatment and offensive behavior or language.
Communication is key to addressing these issues and virtual communication is no less effective. About 40% of all physicians in the US use social media as a platform and although that may seem small, their words bear more weight than most other professionals and travel farther because of their revered positions. Doctor’s lounges and video conferences have helped to reach out to more people over the years and while we may see a only small group of experts in discussion, sociology looks at the much larger audience who are quietly and invisibly listening.