Japanese women doctors in the hospital system: Gender gap, professional burnout, and the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic

Celal Bayari

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Japan’s national hospital system, which consists of a combination of private, national, prefectural and metropolitan hospitals, is the largest employers of the of the doctors. The article provides details on the women doctors’ discontinuous workforce participation in the Japanese hospital system, the dominance of part-time work patterns, and the nature of inflexibility in the work structures that disallow the maintenance of separate work and life spheres. This paper further discusses the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic on Japanese healthcare provision structures in hospitals and the extensive inhibitions that the pandemic placed on the careers of women doctors. The article details the nature of the chronic doctor shortage in Japan, and professional burnout incidences among the women doctors, and how the COVID 19 pandemic intensified these two factors. The analysis herein raises the policy issues at government and workplace level. The article argues that the establishment of free and universal childcare facilities, and family caregiving mechanisms via government fiscal restructuring would assist in the dissolution of gendered work patterns.

Keywords: Burnout; gender gap; Japan; women doctors; workforce participation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 D31 D6 D63 H5 H51 H52 H53 H55 I11 I13 I15 I18 J3 J31 J4 J41 J44 J45 J53 J58 J7 J71 K1 K12 P16 P43 P46 R1 R12 R13 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-01-21
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-lma and nep-mac
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