Are Young Female Doctors Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling in Italy?

Abstract

In the second half of the twentieth century, the feminization of medicine increased in large part of Western Europe. Due both to cultural and social models and to welfare policies, there was a very limited increase in the female medical profession throughout the first half of the 1900s in Italy, and a relatively larger one in the second half. Currently, the female incidence is 39.8%, placing Italy among the last positions in Europe. The results of a pilot project research, carried out on a sample of 131 young physicians enrolled with the order of doctors of Ancona, seem to confirm that some changes are currently taking place. Internalizing managerial outlook, showing high degree of self-confidence, balancing work and private life as well as creating good relational and social networks, the women doctors’ behaviour allows us to imagine that the future scenario could be very different, although gender discrimination still persists.