Female physicians sometimes face a difficult balancing act in their medical careers. Female doctors may experience challenges working in health care such as difficulty maintaining a work and life balance. In addition to being a physician, a woman doctor may have responsibilities as a mother, daughter, caretaker and more. Female physicians acknowledge that many fields of medicine are still dominated by men, but improvements are being made as more women become doctors and enroll in medical school.
In recognition of Women in Medicine month, faculty members Victoria Troncoso, DO, and Savita Arya, MD, joined osteopathic medical student and president of PCOM's American Medical Women's Association Student Chapter
Kate Minke (DO '25) and PCOM President Jay Feldstein, DO '81, on the PCOM Perspectives podcast to share their experiences and advice as female doctors. Dr. Troncoso is professor
and chair of Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM) at PCOM Georgia as well as medical director of the Georgia Osteopathic Care Center. Dr. Arya, is
an associate professor of pathology at PCOM South Georgia and has taught pathology to medical students for more than 20 years.
When Dr. Troncoso and Dr. Arya were in medical school and became attending physicians, they had difficulty maintaining work-life harmony. Some healthcare workplaces had less tolerance for family issues, pregnancies and maternity leave.
Dr. Arya shared that a career in medicine led her to postpone having a family.
“Becoming a physician is hard and is probably harder for women… A career in medicine led me to make a decision of postponing having a family until after I finished medical school journey and pathology residency training,” Arya said. “That affected my health and I developed a complicated pregnancy and I delivered a very premature baby. Thankfully, my daughter survived.”
Arya’s daughter is now 21 and pursuing a career in science at Harvard Medical School. Arya explained she could not afford a second child due to certain aspects of her work and health.
“I think balancing different roles such as being a physician and a mother are very common struggles that I share with many women in medicine,” she added.
Both Dr. Troncoso and Dr. Arya saw or experienced instances of bias during their time as young healthcare providers. They explained that at times, women are underestimated in the workplace, and the biggest challenge may be getting the opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities.
The experienced doctors encourage young female physicians to be honest, kind and humble. Dr. Troncoso encouraged female doctors to stick to their convictions during conflicts or differences of opinions.
Dr. Arya added that as an aspiring female doctor, you must be honest with yourself in addition to having the ability to accept criticism or feedback.
“It's really necessary to retain the ability to accept criticism or constructive criticism or feedback, and to really acknowledge and accept and apologize when you're wrong,” Dr. Arya explained. “If you're able to do that and be able to learn and move on from those things, you can keep learning your whole life.”
Medical student Kate Minke and Dr. Feldstein explained how enrollment for women in higher education and medical school continues to grow. According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, women made up 59.5% of college students (an all-time high) at the end of the 2020-2021 academic year.
Dr. Feldstein acknowledged that it is important to have women in leadership positions at medical colleges and health organizations.
“We've got a demographic shift—that is just the world we live in,” Feldstein said. “We're going to have more women in medical school. We're going to have more women in leadership positions in every industry, I hope, not just science, the STEM fields and medicine.”
PCOM is on forefront of this demographic shift. During the 2021-2022 academic year,
63% of all students enrolled in PCOM's graduate and medical programs at all three campus locations identified
as female.
Minke explained that this is an excellent time for women to enter the medical field.
“In 2019, the AAMC reported that over 50% of people entering the medical field identify as women. And specifically in my class here at [PCOM's Philadelphia location] in the [DO] class of 2025, 54% of those are women,” Minke said. “We also have students who also identify as nonbinary, which is amazing.”
She explained that PCOM has a strong community of women physicians who are mentors and leaders. PCOM's female faculty members want to share their stories and perspectives with future physicians.
Minke shared that she believes that when a space has more diversity, it offers greater perspective.
“What I'm excited about is just continuing to advocate for women voices, women in leadership roles, and just increasing diversity and perspectives in the healthcare field,” Minke said. “Because that'll lead to an even stronger healthcare field in the future.”
PCOM brings more than a century-long tradition of training osteopathic physicians. As a medical student in our DO programs, you'll learn to treat the whole person, not just the disease. We train competent, caring physicians to serve the healthcare needs of diverse communities.
Learn about our DO programs, download our program brochure or complete our online request information form.
REQUEST PROGRAM INFORMATION
© 2024 Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine