VIDEO: Proven skills, decision-making help women ‘rise above’ bias in advanced endoscopy
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In our latest installment of Healio’s diversity, equity and inclusion series, Aileen Bui, MD, and her mentor, Jennifer Phan, MD, discussed managing gender-based bias in advanced endoscopy and how women can combat impostor syndrome.
“As with most procedural specialties, women are underrepresented in gastroenterology,” Bui, a third-year gastroenterology fellow at the University of Southern California, told Healio. “They make up less than 20% of current practicing gastroenterologists. But, the good news is that over the last 10 years, the number of female GI fellows has been growing and we now make up about a third of all GI fellows.”
She added, “However, in advanced endoscopy, this is still drastically lagging behind,” noting that in the past decade women comprised only 14% of graduates from an advanced endoscopy fellowship.
Bui also cited a 2021 article in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, which reported that only 19% of matched advanced endoscopy fellows were women. Lack of same-sex mentors, concerns about family planning, perception of gender-based bias in the workplace and lack of ergonomic equipment were among reported factors that deter women from pursuing this field.
“What we have to do is to reframe the opportunity that we have,” Phan, assistant professor of clinical medicine and advanced endoscopist at the university, said. “There are a few women within interventional endoscopy, but what a great time to actually lead the surge forward to get more and more women involved in interventional.”
Although the few women in the field do tend to be “highly active” mentors, Phan noted that female fellows may need to lean on a male interventionalist as a mentor — what she calls a “he for she” — who can provide support as a sponsor.
And as for gender-based biases often encountered by female endoscopists and fellows, Phan advises women to “rise above it” and prove their abilities with strong skills and medical decision-making.
“We’re always working as a GI society to take away these gender- or sex-based microaggressions or things that make females feel less than or have imposter syndrome,” she said. “Remember that together we’re much stronger than each individual.”
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