COM Outlook Spring 2019

NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY | 5 BY SCOTT COLTON, B.A., APR How a Texas-sized blunder prompted examination of gender-based pay gaps in health care BIAS I n September 2018, Texas physician Gary Tigges, M.D., made national news—and incurred the ire of count- less female physicians—when he made disparaging remarks about his female colleagues in the Dallas Medical Journal ’s Women in Medicine issue. “Yes, there is a pay gap,” said Tigges about the sizable salary disparity. “Female physicians do not work as hard and do not see as many patients as male physicians. This is because they choose to, or simply don’t want to be rushed, or they don’t want to work the long hours. Most of the time, their priority is something else—family, social, whatever. Nothing needs to be ‘done’ about this unless female physi- cians actually want to work harder and put in the hours.” Not surprisingly, the backlash was immediate, not only on social media, but in coverage from news outlets like The Washington Post , Fox News, and CNN. To mitigate the media maelstrom, Tigges offered a swift mea culpa. continued on page 6