--- title: A Third of Female Doctors Report Sexual Harassment description: A new study reveals that 30% of successful female doctors say they've been sexually harassed at work. canonical: https://time.com/4337372/30-of-female-doctors-have-been-sexually-harassed/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-17T17:51:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:55:35.430Z article:section: Health og:title: A Third of Female Doctors Report Sexual Harassment og:description: A new study reveals that 30% of successful female doctors say they've been sexually harassed at work. og:url: https://time.com/4337372/30-of-female-doctors-have-been-sexually-harassed/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5745fd9e53c0fe18/698778965f570f47e0b148f6/health-gloves.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: TIME.com stock photos Health First Aid Kit Gloves og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Third of Female Doctors Report Sexual Harassment twitter:description: A new study reveals that 30% of successful female doctors say they've been sexually harassed at work. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5745fd9e53c0fe18/698778965f570f47e0b148f6/health-gloves.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 30% of Female Doctors Have Been Sexually Harassed > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Pope Francis Discusses Sexual Abuse: [Watch (HLS stream): Pope Francis Discusses Sexual Abuse:](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0V9wGkZZ.m3u8) (1:20)  _Published 2015-09-27. Pope Francis Discusses Sexual Abuse:_ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin May 17, 2016 5:51 PM UTC  Elizabeth Renstrom for TIME by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin May 17, 2016 5:51 PM UTC Sexual discrimination and [harassment in medicine and science](http://time.com/4276980/hope-jahren-lab-girl-interview/) is an all-too common occurrence, as evidenced by recent news stories of men in positions of power [making unwanted sexual advances toward young doctors](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/15/us/yale-medical-school-sexual-harassment.html), and [scientific journal reviewers requesting men be added to an all-female team of researchers](http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/05/plos-one-ousts-reviewer-editor-after-sexist-peer-review-storm). Now, a new study is putting numbers to the issue, finds that 30% of successful female doctors say they’ve been sexually harassed. In the report, published in the journal _JAMA_, the researchers found that a third of women physicians reported being sexually harassed; for men, the number was 4%. To reach these conclusions, the study authors surveyed 1,066 men and women who had received a career development award from the National Institutes of Health. They were asked about their experiences with gender bias, as well as inappropriate sexual advances, subtle bribery for sexual acts, and threats. Among the women who reported sexual harassment, nearly 60% said it had a negative effect on their confidence in themselves as professionals and close to 50% said the experiences negatively impacted their career advancement. “We are now in an age where almost half of all medical students are women and there’s a growing need to make sure everyone is able to maximize their potential,” says study author Dr. Reshma Jagsi of the University of Michigan. “I was quite surprised,” says Jagsi of the findings. Decades-old [surveys](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10836916) have suggested high levels of sexual harassment among doctors, but Jagsi says she thought that given the growing gender equity in medicine today, the percentage of women reporting severe sexual harassment would be much lower. “We all have seen the really horrible egregious cases but no one would expect so many women have had these experiences,” she says. The report concludes that more needs to be done to eliminate inappropriate behavior in the workplace, including unconscious bias. “I think a lot of the behavior does not occur out in the open anymore, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Such experiences don’t appear to be rare yet,” says Jagsi. ## Transcript [ FOREIGN ] God weeps. [ FOREIGN ] For the sexual abuse of children. [ FOREIGN ] These cannot be maintained in secret. [ FOREIGN ] And I commit to. A careful oversight to insure that youth are protected. And that all responsible will be held accountable. I have thought in my heart these stories of suffering, [ FOREIGN ] of those youth that were sexually abused, [ FOREIGN ] and it continues To be on the mind of the people who had the responsibility to take care of these tender ones violated that trust and caused them great pain. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4337372/30-of-female-doctors-have-been-sexually-harassed/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4337372/30-of-female-doctors-have-been-sexually-harassed/"},"headline":"30% of Female Doctors Have Been Sexually Harassed","datePublished":"2016-05-17T17:51:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:55:35.430Z","description":"Nearly half say it negatively impacted their career","url":"https://time.com/4337372/30-of-female-doctors-have-been-sexually-harassed/","keywords":["medicine","Science topic","sexual harassment","sexism"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5745fd9e53c0fe18/698778965f570f47e0b148f6/health-gloves.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5745fd9e53c0fe18/698778965f570f47e0b148f6/health-gloves.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIME.com stock photos Health First Aid Kit Gloves","caption":"TIME.com stock photos Health First Aid Kit Gloves","creditText":"Elizabeth Renstrom for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/medicine/","name":"medicine"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4337372/30-of-female-doctors-have-been-sexually-harassed/","name":"30% of Female Doctors Have Been Sexually Harassed"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Pope Francis Discusses Sexual Abuse:","description":"Pope Francis Discusses Sexual Abuse:","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/0V9wGkZZ/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-09-27T15:02:20.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0V9wGkZZ.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4337372/30-of-female-doctors-have-been-sexually-harassed/","duration":"PT1M20S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4337372/30-of-female-doctors-have-been-sexually-harassed/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```