Gender and the medical-writing profession
Women form a large majority of respondents to surveys of medical communicators, while the implications for career opportunities, professional standing and recognition require careful interpretation.
Workforce composition
AMWA salary surveys show a sustained female majority among respondents:
| Survey year | Women among respondents |
|---|---|
| 1989 | 72% |
| 1994 | 75% |
| 2002 | 82% |
| 2004 | 83% |
| 2007 | 83% |
| 2011 | 84% |
| 2015 | 85% |
| 2019 | 83.4% |
The figures describe survey participants rather than necessarily the membership or profession as a whole; the 2015 survey also invited lapsed members and members of related organisations. A 2018 account gives the 2015 female share as 84%, differing from the 85% in the 2016 table and the later historical comparison. In 2019, 16.0% of respondents were men and fewer than 1% preferred not to answer. AMWA’s board and staff in 2018 comprised 20 women and one man.
A 2016 commentary placed women at at least half of AMWA’s membership since professional communicators replaced male journal editors in the early 1970s. In a 2021 executives’ discussion, women were acknowledged as the majority of medical writers in the USA and some, but not all, other countries.
Feminisation as a hypothesis
Feminisation means an increase in the proportion of women practising an occupation. Medical writing was proposed in 2016 as one destination for women leaving the scientific workforce after scientific education. Concerns about its implications included whether increasing female participation might accompany perceived deskilling and lower compensation.
The narrowing gender pay gap prompted questions about whether compensation for the profession overall was falling relative to male-dominated occupations requiring comparable education and skills. The increasing proportion of respondents with doctorates also raised the question of whether women leaving scientific roles contributed to the profession’s changing educational profile. These remained questions for investigation.
Experiences and limits of a small case study
A 2016 qualitative case study interviewed three medical writers or editors working in Texas who had undertaken doctoral or postdoctoral training in Houston and were recruited through AMWA contacts. All worked in academic institutions supporting manuscripts and grant applications, so they did not represent the wider profession or necessarily the experience of regulatory or continuing-education writers. Their names were pseudonyms, used with consent.
ELS denotes Editor in the Life Sciences.
| Participant | Sex | Doctorate | Credential | Years in the profession | Children |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sam | Man | Psychology | ELS | 13 | No |
| Jane | Woman | Literature | None listed | 3 | No |
| Mary | Woman | Genetics | ELS | 5 | Yes |
All three identified predictable staff hours and freelance flexibility, while Sam and Mary contrasted medical writing as a profession with academia as a lifestyle. Mary had left an assistant professorship after working six days a week in the laboratory and spending the seventh thinking about work, seeking a better balance between work and personal life.
Sam had not felt excluded in an otherwise female office or at predominantly female AMWA meetings and had not noticed bias against women colleagues or clients, but his experience of only one workplace prevented comparison with gender-balanced or male-dominated settings.
Mary considered patience and dedication traits women inherently possessed and wondered whether women were more talkative, but the accompanying analysis noted that research did not support the latter belief. These statements were participants’ perceptions, and the study’s small, nonrepresentative sample cannot establish their prevalence across medical writing.
The potential contribution of female leadership and staffing to undervaluation of central academic editing departments was raised as a question, without establishing such an effect. Further research was recommended into systematic inequities and unequal compensation in feminised professions.
Recognition and participation
Professional equality efforts should begin with facts about career progression, compensation and how medical writers are perceived, with advocacy by both individuals and organisations. A 2021 executives’ group proposed investigating what might deter men from entering medical writing and how they could be encouraged to pursue it.