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Women GPs earn £11,000 less than men for doing the same job, a report reveals and the 13 per cent pay gap is only partly explained by women's family commitments.  Male GPs earned £83,333 on average in 2006, while women earned £72,250.  In The Pay Gap for Women in Medicine and Academic Medicine, co-published with the BMA, the Medical Women's Federation (MWF) suggested that women are reluctant to bargain their pay up.  Academic research hints that 'women are poor or unwilling negotiators', the report said.  Dr Clarissa Fabre, MWF president-elect and a GP in Uckfield, East Sussex, agreed: 'Women do not like to bring up money or, for example, time to parity. It is in their nature not to ask.

They want something that is convenient for their lives. Men are much more forward about it.'  The concerns raised in the report have broader connotations with GPs taking a lead role in commissioning 80% of all NHS services in the future.  Commissioning is all about clarity of outcomes, negotiation and assertiveness.  Will this mean that male GPs will take on the lions-share of commissioning leadership?  Efforts generally to increase the number of women in the boardrooms of Britain's largest companies have failed, according to new research, with almost no change in the number of female directors over the past year.  At junior management level, 28% per cent more men than women receive specialist development via high-potential groups or “talent pools”, according to data from 10,000 business leaders in 376 organisations.   At executive level, 50% more men than women get such help.  Can this gender issue be addressed and ensure that equality and fairness of commissioning begins close to home; within the GP Consortia boards themselves?

Last Updated on Monday, 26 July 2010 12:00