Please cite this article in press as: Magnavita N. Is there a gender gap in Italian radiology? A cross-sectional study. Eur J Radiol (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrad.2013.04.007 ARTICLE IN PRESS G Model EURR-6332; No. of Pages 6 European Journal of Radiology xxx (2013) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect European Journal of Radiology jo ur nal ho me page: www.elsevier.com/locate/ejrad Is there a gender gap in Italian radiology? A cross-sectional study Nicola Magnavita ∗ Institute of Occupational Medicine, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Roma, Italy a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 26 February 2013 Accepted 17 April 2013 Keywords: Gender gap Radiology Stress Organizational justice Anxiety Depression Mental health Job satisfaction Happiness a b s t r a c t Background: Although the number of women entering the medical profession has increased, this has not led to an even distribution in all branches of medicine. In countries where the health service is mainly private, there are still fewer female radiologists, especially at managerial level. The aim of this paper is to make a comparison of work-related stress, satisfaction and perceived organizational justice in male and female radiologists in Italy. Methods: Italian radiologists were asked to answer an anonymous questionnaire during two successive national radiology Congresses. Results: Women reported a psychophysical workload that was the same as that of their male colleagues, but claimed that they had less control over their work, made a greater effort to fulfill job requirements, were more over-committed in their work and received fewer rewards for the work performed than their male colleagues. On account of the lack of procedural, distributive and informative justice, women radiologists perceived the work environment as significantly less fair compared to their male colleagues. Moreover, they derived less satisfaction from their job. They suffered from anxiety, depression and minor psychiatric disorders to a greater extent than their male counterparts. Conclusion: Despite the significant number of women radiologists in Italy, the gender gap still exists and can be witnessed in horizontal and vertical segregation. Policies should be introduced to contrast gender bias © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction For many thousands of years, the medical profession, like many other well-paid professions, has been a predominantly male terri- tory, although there were a few women doctors in ancient times. Egyptian records show that as early as 1500 BC, women were stu- dents at the Medical School of Heliopolis in Egypt, and on the walls of the Tutankhamon’s tomb, archeologists have revealed the earli- est picture of a woman physician [1]. In Italy, women physicians have always been in the minority, and are still currently fewer in number than men. However, times are changing: in the ‘60 s, women represented only 5% of physicians and a maximum of 10% of medical school enrolments, but now women make up more than 50% of all Italian medical school students [2] and new medical gra- duates [3]. Has this increase in the number of female doctors occurred without vertical segregation, i.e. do female doctors have the same chance as males of reaching the highest levels of a clinical or academic career? And what about horizontal segregation, i.e. are ∗ Correspondence address: Department of Public Health, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Largo Gemelli 8, 00168 Roma, Italy. Tel.: +39 3473300367; fax: +39 0661909399. E-mail addresses: nicolamagnavita@gmail.com, nmagnavita@rm.unicatt.it women under-represented in some career specialties? Finally, do female doctors have the same level of mental health as their male colleagues? In this paper we intend to answer these questions by compar- ing the state of psychological well-being, occupational stress and perceived occupational justice of female radiologists with that of their male colleagues. 2. Population and methods In recent years in Italy, an increasing number of women have chosen a career as a radiologist. In 2012, male members of the Ital- ian Society of Medical Radiology (SIRM) still outnumbered female radiologists, however, women predominated in the lower age groups, so it is easy to predict that in the future female radiologists will be more numerous than males (Table 1). During two successive National Congresses of the Italian Society of Medical Radiology (SIRM), held in 2007 and 2008, radiolo- gists were invited to anonymously complete a questionnaire that included, amongst other things, a section for evaluating work- related stress and one for estimating its consequences. The first questionnaire was specifically intended to study malpractice stress [4]; the aim of the second questionnaire was to study violence against radiologists and analyzed the concept of procedural justice 0720-048X/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrad.2013.04.007