Gender Equity in Hospitals: An Italian case study

The topic of gender equity is increasingly cited as a goal of health policy despite the rise in the number of female doctors around the world, and attempts to enhance gender awareness have gained prominence. Recently, initiatives to increase gender awareness have been numerous nevertheless, the topic of gender equity in the medical profession has not been adequately assessed. In order to fill this gap, this paper examines the current state of gender equity literature in hospitals, with a systematic literature review on Scopus, and, then, it focuses on an Italian case study to identify the characteristics that obstacle or support gender equity in terms of salary, career, and professionalism. The finding highlighted some reflections regarding the roles in the Italian hospitals and obstacles to gender equity, such as the stereotyped judgments, as well as shed light on new considerations regarding the actions aimed at managing gender disparity in such working environments. This has important implications for practice in health care organizations and human resource management, which are highlighted in conclusion, together with the limitations and future research avenues.