The next tweetchat will be on Monday 5th July at 8pm BST.
The topic is on the gender balance (or possibly imbalance) in physiotherapy and how this is changing over the years – has this changed the profession and how it might be perceived outside of physiotherapy.
World Physiotherapy report on each of their member organisations gender balance and compare this to the regional and global proportion of male and female physiotherapists (the CSP has started to collect a wider range of data since 2019 including non binary gender data). The figures show that 74% of physiotherapists in the UK are female, compared to 66% regionally and 61% globally.
A recent Frontline article however reported that things were changing with the student intake in 2019 being 59% female students and 41% male students, stating that between 2009 and 2019, there was over 10% increase in male physiotherapy students. Other countries already have a predominantly male profession, for example Japan has the ratio of male to female as almost the reverse of the UK, with only 36% of the profession being female.
However, despite the current numbers reflecting a female profession in the UK, there is some evidence that senior leadership positions might be disproportionally male and a recent tweet thread highlighted a gender imbalance in representation in speakers at a conference. This is not only an issue in physiotherapy of course – healthcare in general has a largely female workforce and yet the gender imbalance is also highlighted specifically in healthcare conferences in general
Chat questions
Do you think physiotherapy needs to change the gender balance between male and female physiotherapists?
Does the profession reflect the society and population we serve?
Do you think the profession is changing as the gender balance begins to be more equal?
How can we ensure equal or proportionate gender representation in leadership positions?
How can we ensure equal or proportionate gender representation at events which showcase the profession
physiotalk 