More than one-third of female doctors say they have been sexually harassed, according to a survey that suggests the problem isn't disappearing from the medical profession.
Overall, 47.7 percent reported having been targets of gender-based harassment, and 36.9 percent reported having been sexually harassed, researchers said in Monday's issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, released Sunday.The 1993-94 nationwide survey did not ask women to specify what behavior they thought constituted harassment, only whether they believed it had occurred.
Younger physicians reported higher rates of sexual harassment than older ones, and medical schools were the most common site, said researchers led by Dr. Erica Frank of Emory University in Atlanta.
"Some may believe that problems of harassment will disappear in time, that they are simply a function of older, sexist physicians still being in practice," the researchers said.
But the data suggest a more complicated picture, they said.
While younger women may be more sensitive to harassment than their older colleagues, the survey suggests that harassment may be worsening in schools, and "we may be continuing to train physicians in an environment where harassment is common," they said.
A spokeswoman for medical schools praised the report.