Sexual harassment of new physicians remains a nasty, solution-resistant problem

First-year medical residents are getting sexually harassed at work less frequently now than several years ago. That said, the rates are still “alarmingly high,” according to harassment researchers. And one especially troubling form of the offense—profession-related sexual coercion—is very much on the rise.

The new research was conducted by a team from the University of Michigan Medical School and the Medical University of South Carolina. Their report was published March 22 as a research brief in JAMA Health Forum.

Lead author Elena Frank, PhD, and colleagues analyzed surveys completed by more than 4,100 U.S. physicians who were enrolled in Michigan Medicine’s Intern Health Study in 2016, 2017 and 2022. The median age of respondents was 27, and women comprised 52% of the cohort.

Frank and co-authors report that, from 2017 to 2023, more than half of all new doctors faced some form of sexual harassment in their first year on the job.

Almost three-quarters of first-year female residents and a third of their male counterparts were affected.

Other key findings:

• Sexual harassment rates decreased from 63% to 55%.
• Gender harassment rates decreased from 61% to 52%.
• Sexual coercion incidents increased for women from 2% to 6%.
• Sexual coercion incidents also rose for nonsurgical interns from 2% to 4%.
• Interns’ recognition of what constitutes sexual harassment increased from 9% to 18%.
• Recognition of gender harassment increased overall from 9% to 19%.  
• Recognition of unwanted sexual attention increased among women from 30% to 42% and among surgical interns from 19% to 53%.

(Note: All figures above are rounded up or down to the nearest whole number.)

Unwanted advances remain ‘ingrained in the culture of medicine’

In their discussion section, Frank and colleagues note interns’ growing ability to spot sexual harassment when they’re on the receiving end. The researchers state this finding suggests improvements in awareness across medicine. At the same time, they underscore, harassment incidents continue to outpace recognition rates:

‘In 2023, 3 of 4 female interns experienced sexual harassment, and 1 of 4 identified their experiences as such. This gap between experience and recognition may reflect the extent to which sexual and gender-based discriminatory behavior remains ingrained in the culture of medicine. Thus, attention must shift beyond organizational policy compliance to address climate issues unique to institutions and specialties.’

Meanwhile, the finding that profession-related sexual coercion has doubled in incidence “is concerning,” the authors comment. They note this type of harassment increased across the six years studied, although it was much less prevalent than gender-based verbal or work environment harassment.

“In all, more than 5% of female first-year residents, also called interns, said in 2023 that they had been in a situation where they felt pressured to engage in a sexual activity to get favorable professional treatment,” Michigan Medicine reports in a news release covering the study. “That was more than double the percentage who said so in 2017.”

The rate in men stayed the same over that same period—less than 2%.

Time for another round of #MeToo hand-raisings?

“The overall decrease in sexual harassment incidence over recent years suggests a move in the right direction; however, rates of sexual harassment experienced by physician trainees are still alarmingly high,” Frank says, adding that the #MeToo movement, which peaked several years back, probably made a difference.

“The persistent gap between the experience and recognition of sexual harassment identified in our study,” she adds, “illustrates the importance of looking beyond policy compliance, to challenge the deeply entrenched cultural norms that have enabled sexual and gender based harassment to continue largely unquestioned in medicine for so long.”

Journal study here, university news item here.