Centre for Analysis and Health Programmes (CAPS)
If you are the contact person for this centre and you wish to make any changes, please contact us.
Doctor of Medicine specialised in endocrinology and medicine with a gender perspective, director of the 'Women, Health and Quality of Life' programme at the Centre for Analysis and Health Programmes (CAPS)
Every 11 February is celebrated as World Medical Women's Day, which coincides with the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, although its commemoration refers to Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to obtain a medical degree in the USA, in 1849. More than a century and a half later, despite the increasing number of women graduates, inequalities persist in the profession, especially in senior positions.
A US study has found that patients treated by female physicians have lower rates of mortality and hospital readmission than those treated by male physicians. The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine and involving more than 700,000 patients over the age of 65, found that the effects were even greater when female patients were treated by female physicians.