Intended for healthcare professionals

  1. News & Views
  2. Covid-19 is an...
  3. Covid-19 is an opportunity for gender equality within the workplace and at home
Views And Reviews

Covid-19 is an opportunity for gender equality within the workplace and at home

BMJ 2020; 369 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1546 (Published 20 April 2020) Cite this as: BMJ 2020;369:m1546

Read our latest coverage of the coronavirus pandemic

All rapid responses

Rapid responses are electronic comments to the editor. They enable our users to debate issues raised in articles published on bmj.com. A rapid response is first posted online. If you need the URL (web address) of an individual response, simply click on the response headline and copy the URL from the browser window. A proportion of responses will, after editing, be published online and in the print journal as letters, which are indexed in PubMed. Rapid responses are not indexed in PubMed and they are not journal articles. The BMJ reserves the right to remove responses which are being wilfully misrepresented as published articles or when it is brought to our attention that a response spreads misinformation.

From March 2022, the word limit for rapid responses will be 600 words not including references and author details. We will no longer post responses that exceed this limit.

The word limit for letters selected from posted responses remains 300 words.

COVID-19 is an opportunity for improving access to medical education

Wenham et al point to a bright future beyond COVID-19, with medicine increasingly recognising that doctors enjoy private lives and family responsibilities. Yes, increased confidence and acceptance of video conferencing, offsite working and flexible hours builds gender equality within medicine. However, we would go further: it also provides an opportunity to bring down longstanding barriers stopping parent physicians accessing medical education and postgraduate professional development.

We surveyed 73 physician parents and found that most respondents felt their parental role disrupts their ability to attend educational events. Less than a quarter reported having access to any educational events that are ‘parent-friendly’. Many fewer felt that there are sufficient ‘parent-friendly’ educational events on offer.

Can medical educational institutions also learn lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic? 'Lockdown' has certainly shown how important face-to-face contact is for morale, working relationships and team building, and we do not wish to replace in-person educational events with virtual teaching. However, let's recognise that we all have competing priorities.

Facilitating the option for virtual attendance at medical education events will make a real difference to how much education doctors can access. This could be a lifeline for busy physician parents, who may otherwise access very little medical education at all.

Competing interests: No competing interests

26 April 2020
Anna-Marie C Parr
Junior doctor- internal medicine/core medicine trainee
Dr Laurence Nee, Dr Claire Maling, Dr Bridget Macdonald
St George's Hospital, Tooting, London
St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Blackshaw Road, Tooting, London SW17 0QT

Covid-19 and social and biological agendas: is the victim guilty?

I do not share Wenham and colleagues’ conclusion that covid-19 is another opportunity for greater gender equality in the workplace and at home. (1)

Firstly, although the quality of epidemiological data is unacceptably low, across all countries men are obviously and consistently dying at a much higher rate from COVID-19 than are women.

Secondly, mortality is greater in men of all ages and this difference has remained almost constant over the past decades. This gap begins very early and can hardly be only due to some “gendered behaviour”. Indeed, worldwide, child mortality is higher in boys than in girls, and teenage boys have 65% higher mortality than girls but this issue is almost denied. (2)

Last, could concerns about who wash the dishes be a global health issue?

Global health policy advocates must acknowledge there is a mix of social and biological influences and achieve a balance between the two.

1 Wenham C, Smith J, , Morgan R. Covid-19 is an opportunity for gender equality within the workplace and at home. BMJ 2020;369:m1546

2 Braillon A. The women's conspiracy. Lancet 2007;369:1428-1429.

Competing interests: No competing interests

21 April 2020
alain braillon
senior consultant
University hospital
80000 Amiens. France.
Back to top