Gender inequalities in medical careers: evidences from five hospitals in the Lombardy region

Women have made a significant progress in the medical profession, but despite this trend gender inequalities in pay and career advancement persist. This study investigates the determinants of wage and promotion differentials among physicians based on a dataset of more than 1000 doctors working in five hospitals in the Lombardy Region, Italy. Data were collected through an online survey with a response rate of 48.7%. Controlling for differences in observed characteristics, women earn 18% less than their male colleagues while they are less likely to be promoted from the early to the mid-level of the career ladder, while no adjusted penalty in promotion persists from the mid-level to the final step of the ladder. This result suggests that female underrepresentation in senior positions is due more to a sticky floor mechanism than to a glass ceiling effect.