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Practice Patterns of Women Pharmacists
Practice Patterns of ·Women Pharmacists By Kenneth W. Kirk and Richard A. Ohvall*
F
or the academic year 1971-72, 24.0 percent of the pharmacy students in the United States were women. 1 Twenty . years ago the comparable percentage was 9.4 percent, while ten years ago the figure was only 12.4 percent. 2 •3 This trend toward more women entering the pharmacy profession shows no sign of declining. Salisbury has stated that if present trends remain unchanged, in all likelihood most of the pharmacists in the health care center of the future if not all of them will be women. 4 The extent to which this growing proportion of women pharmacy students will practice after they become registered has been questioned. In other words how many women pharmacists actually will make pharmacy a career? Lewis has defined a "career woman" as follows-
. . . . a woman who is engaged in an activity outside her family responsibilities for which she receives a salary. This activity should require a sizeable amount of education or training in preparation, so that it cannot be undertaken casually. It should provide an opportunity for advancement as skills and experience increase. Finally, a career implies that ' the woman's family responsibilities do not overshadow her job. They must be combined more or less equally, but the career woman must be prepared to subordinate responsibilities of a family, if she has one, so that her job will not suffer. 5
women pharmacists Lewis' beliefs.
which
support
I'm not concerned about the ability of the female to make her contributions-! know she can and does, but you are dealing with biology here- and psychology. Regardless of what you do , when you put your chips on women as professional manpower sources, you're going to lose them-biology being what it is. Motherhood is motherhood. They drop out, they have a family, and then maybe they come back and are productive again. 7
Thus, conflict is possible between the likely partial utilization of women in pharmacy practice and the desirability of making pharmaceutical education most available to those who will practice full-time during their life. A recent statement by Bliven demonstrates the indecisiveness of data available on the practice patterns of women pharmacists. He reported that "if" women have shorter working careers and "perhaps" practice fewer hours per day, these are factors affecting our manpower needs. 8 This lack of data makes it difficult if not impossible to realize the true significance of the increasing numbers of women pharmacists. As a 1971 report stated, pharmacy has lagged in studying manpower needs and services as compared to other health professions. 9
Study of Women Pharmacists A national study of women pharmacists was undertaken during the summer of 1971 in an effort to understand better their practice patterns. A listing of pharmacists in the U.S. was obtained from N ABP which represented pharmacists licensed during the period from October 1965 through March 1968. 10 Names from the APhA Directory of Pharm·acists also were used to obtain the initial sample. 11 All names were selected systematically in an effort to have a random sample. A copy of a pretested questionnaire was mailed to each of 3,176 women pharmacists, 471 of which were returned as not deliverable. A total of 1,459 of the remaining 2, 705 women returned a completed questionnaire, 1,341 of which were sufficiently complete to be used in the study. The sample was geographically representative of practicing women pharmacists in the U.S . Forty-five women in the study were . nuns. They were not included in the following analyses since their practice patterns were thought to be atypical of women pharmacists in general. Of the remaining 1,296 pharmacists, 1,032 (80 percent) reported they were active in pharmacy practice, while 264 (20 percent) were inactive at the time of the study.
TABLE I
Hours Worked per Week by Active Respondents Lewis also has stated it is a fallacy to say that women-can have career patterns similar to those of men. Most women move into and out of the labor force depending on the needs and responsibilities within their families. 6 The executive director of NABP recently made the following statements about
Range of Hours Worked Per Week
405
Between 30 and 39 hours
128
12.5
29~hours
156
15.2
Between 20 and
614
* Seven
Percent
40 hours or more
39 . 5
Between 10 and 19 hours
193
18.8
Less than 10 hours
143
14 . 0
Total
* For biographical information on the authors, see page 677.
Active Respondents N
1 '025*
women did not report the number of hours they worked per week.
Journal of the AMERICAN PHARMACEUTICAL ASSOCIATION
100.0
Current Practice Patterns The women were asked to report the range of hours they were currently working per week. The data in Table I (page 614) show about two out of every five active women pharmacists were practicing full time, using a minimum of 40 hours per week as the standard for full-time practice. Apparently, women pharmacists are finding numerous part-time opportunities as evidenced by the distribution through the · four categories of part-time practice. A tabulation was made to determine what percentage of the women's potential working life was spent practicing pharmacy. The five categories of hours worked per week were divided into fifths, and each fraction of full-time practice was multiplied by the number of women in the corresponding category. Using the data from Table I and the number of inactive women pharmacists, a full-time equivalent was calculated. Table II (right) shows the women in the sample were working 54.8 percent of their working life. Thus if these data are representative of the career practice patterns of all women pharmacists it could be estimated that about 55 percent of an average woman pharmacist's fulltime employment potential is spent practicing pharmacy. An important factor to consider when analyzing the current practice patterns of women pharmacists is the variation in patterns between younger and older women. "Age" in this study was measured by the number of years since a woman had first become registered as a pharmacist. A "full-time equivalent" was calculated for various "age" categories of the sample. The data in Table III (right) show some minor variations. Women in the "middle-age" categories appear to work less than the other women, except for the women who had reached retirement age.
TABLE II
Current Full-Time Practice Equivalent for Respondents Women Pharmacists 405 128 156 193 143 264 1,289*
X X
X X X X
Full-Time Equivalent
5/ 5 4/5 3/4 2/5 1/5 0/ 5
405 . 0 102.4 93.6 77.2 28.6 0.0 706.8
706.8 - 54.8 percent , 1 289 * Seven women did not report the number of hours they worked per week.
TABLE III
Current Full-Time Practice Equivalents for Women Based on Years of Being a Pharmacist Women Pharmacists
Years Been a Pharmacist
Full-Time Equivalent
Less than 10 years
207
58.4%
10-14 years
232
53.0
15-19 years
215
51.6
20-24 years
240
54.9
25-39 years
286
57.4
94
45.6
40 years or more Total
1,274*
54.7%
* Six women did not report the number of hours they worked per week; 15 women did not report the number of years they had been pharmacists, a nd one woman reported neither.
TABLE IV
Career Practice Patterns of Respondents Full-Time Practice
Part-Time Practice
51.3%
26.8%
Notln Practice
Total
21.9%
100.0%
N = 1, 232* *Sixty-four women did not report their career practice patterns.
TABLE V
Career Practice Patterns The women were asked to report the percentage of time they had practiced full-time and the percentage spent practicing part-time since becoming pharmacists. These two percentages were combined and were referred to as "career practice patterns." Full time was defined as 40 hours per week or more. Table IV data (right) show that just over half of the average woman pharmacist's career was in full-time pharmacy practice, just over onequarter of her career was in part-time practice and just over one-fifth of her career was spent not practicing pharmacy. No attempt was made to determine specific hours worked during the
Fraction of · Full-Time
Percentages of Respondents in Full-Time Practice During Their Pharmacy Career Percent of Career In Full-Time Practice
N
100 percent 80 percent or more
Women Pharmacists Percent
226
18.3
394
32.0
60 percent or more
521
42.3
50 percent or more
626
50 . 8
Less than 50 percent
606
49.2
Less than 40 percent
528
42 . 9
Less than 20 percent
280
22.8
Total respondents
1' 232*
* Sixty-four women did not report their career practice patterns.
Vol. NS13, No. 11, November 1973
615
respondent's career due to the likely unreliability of such data. Thus a "full-time equivalent" could not be calculated using career practice data. These findings are similar to those of Ohvall and Sehgal who studied a smaller sample of women pharmacists in 1968. They reported that their average respondent practiced full~time 48.5 percent of her professional life, part-time 24.5 percent and did not practice 27.0 percent of her professional life. 12 The similarity in the findings of these two studies lends reliability to both. The sample of women was categorized by the percent of their career spent in the full-time practice of pharmacy, with the time spent in part-time practice ignored for this analysis. Just over 50 percent of the responding women had practiced full-time for 50 percent or more of their career (Table V, page 615). The figure of less than 20 percent having practiced full-time all of their career substantiates the fact that a high percentage of women temporarily do leave full-time practice. A study of a sample of 1,336 women physicians showed that 62.0 percent had practiced either full-time or parttime throughout their career .13 Only 33.2 percent of the responding women pharmacists in this study reported having practiced either full-time or part-time throughout their career.
TABLE VI
Current Hours Worked per Week by Type of Practice Range of Hours Worked per Week 40 hours or more Between 20 and 39 hours Less than 20 hours
Total
Community
Type of Practice Hospital
Comm.jHosp.
35 . 2% 28 . 6 36.2 100 . 0% (N = 710)*
55 . 5% 22.5 22.0 100.0% (N = 236)
30.5% 35 . 6 33.9 100.0% (N = 59)
* Three community pharmacists did not report the number of hours they were working per week. Note-Data in Table VI has been published previously in the September 1972 issue of American Journal of Hospital Pharmacy, 29: 9, 761-766.
TABLE VII
Career Practice Patterns of Respondents in Community and Hospital Pharmacy at Time of Study Career Practice Patterns Full-time Part-time Not in practice Total
Community
Type of Practice Hospital
Comm.jHosp.
53 . 5% 31.9 14.6 100.0% (N = 698)*
61.7% 22.4 15.9 100.0% (N = 233)
50.0% 32.2 17 . 8 100.0% (N = 57)
*Fifteen community, three hospital, and two community/hospital pharmacists did not report their career practice patterns. ' Note-Data in Table VII has been published previously in the September 1972 issue of the American Journal of Hospital Pharmacy, 29: 9, 761-766.
TABLE VIII
Practice Patterns by Type of Pharmacy ' Practice A comparison was made between the career practice patterns of women pharmacists in community and hospital practice. Tables VI and VII (right) show there was a tendency for hospital pharmacists to spend a greater percentage of their time in the full-time practice of pharmacy, based on both current and career practice patterns. Francke has recognized the need for part-time pharmacists in hospital pharmacy. He specifically has suggested that women pharmacists be employed on a part-time basis in those hospitals where the demand for pharmacy service is too low to justify employing a fulltime pharmacist. 14 He recommended that ASHP establish and maintain a registry of experienced women pharmacists who preferred to practice in hospitals on a part-time basis only and that this information be made available to small hospitals and related institutions.15 It was probable that some of the respondents who were practicing one type of pharmacy at the time of the study had practiced in another type of practice during their career. This 616
Mean Percentages of Career Time Spent in Various Types of Pharmacy Practice, Full-Time and Part-Time Career Practice Patterns
Community Pharmacy
Full-time Part-time Time in practice Not in practice Total
36% 21 57
Type of Practice Hospital Total Pharmacy Comm./Hosp. Other 51% 26 77
15% 5
20
1%
Total
78% 22 100% (N = 1, 180)*
* 116 women did not complete the section asking for percentage breakdowns of tim<'; spent in full-time and part-time practice in various types of pharmacy practice.
TABLE IX
Career Practice Patterns of Respondents Based on Marital Status Career Practice Patterns
Single
69.9%
61.5%
6.7
31.1
14.2
20.1
7.8
24.7
15.9
18.4
85.5%
Part-time
Total
Husband Deceased
44.2%
Full-time Not in practice
Marital Status Separated or Divorced Married
100.0%
(N = 144)*
100 . 0 %
(N = 956)*
100.0%
(N = 51)*
100.0%
(N = 81)*
* Seven single, 43 married, three separated or divorced and 11 women whose husbands were deceased did not report their career practice patterns.
Journal of the AMERICAN PHARMACEUTICAL ASSOCIATION
TABLE X
Career Practice Patterns of Respondents Based on Geographic Location Women Pharmacists
AACP District
Career Practice Patterns FullPartTime Time
Total In Practice
( %)
( %)
(%)
98
50 . 1
24 . 4
74 . 5
2. Del. , D.C. , Md., N .J., N.Y., Pa., Va ., W . Va.
270
47.8
28.3
76. 1
3. Ala. , Fla. , Ga., Miss., N.C., S.C. , Tenn.
145
57 . 1
22 . 9
80 . 0
4. Ill., Ind. , Ky., Mich., Ohio, Wise.
277
46.4
31.4
77 . 8
70
41.8
36.6
78 . 4
128
67.5
16.9
84 . 4
80
45 . 2
30 . 9
76.1
163
55 . 1
23 . 2
78.3
1231*
51.3
26.8
78.1
1. Conn. , Me., Mass. , N.H. , R.I. , Vt.
5. Ia., Minn., Neb., N .D ., S.D. 6. Ark., Kan ., La., Mo. , Okla. , Tex. 7. Alaska, Idaho, Mont. , Ore. , Wash., Wyo. 8. Ariz., Calif., Colo. , Hawaii, Nev. , N.M., Utah Total
*Sixty-four women did not report their career practice p a tterns a nd one did not report her geogra phic location .
should be remembered when interpreting the data in Table VII. However, the women were asked to report the percentage of their career they had spent in the full-time and part-time practice of various types of practice. The data in Table VIII (page 616) show how the careers of the women pharmacists were divided between type of practice and between full-time and part-time practice. For example if this sample represents the career patterns of all women pharmacists it could be said that 36 percent of the potential manpower supplied by women pharmacists is spent in the full-time practice of community pharmacy. Practice Patterns by Marital Status
An additional analysis of career practice patterns was made based on the women pharmacists' marital status. Table IX data (page 616) show, as would be expected, that the single women had spent a much higher percentage of their career practicing both full-time and in total than had the married women. The women whose husbands were deceased usually were older women. Their high percentage of total time spent practicing pharmacy might indicate that as the group of married women get older they will spend more of their time practicing pharmacy. The career practice patterns of women in different geographic areas of the country were compared. Geographic areas were defined by the eight districts of AACP. The data in Ta_ble X (above) show the greatest variation from the mean to have been in AACP Districts 5 and 6. The women in District 5 worked less full-time, but rriore part-time, while about two-thirds· of the career time of the women in District 6 was spent in full-time practice.
Other Findings
Other analyses of the data collected from the women pharmacists were made1. Women in the child-bearing age did not drop out of practice but rather reduced their number of hours worked per week. 2. The size of the community in which the ·women were practicing did not appear to affect their practice patterns. 3. More than half of the women not practicing at the time of the study did not plan to practice during the next five years either. Less than three percent of the women who were practicing at the time of the study did not plan to practice during the next five years. 4. Women who had ever left practice for more than one month were asked the reasons why and 7 5 percent said because of pregnancy or taking care of their children. 5. Women who had ever practiced parttime were asked why they did so rather than practice full-time , and 76 percent said because they wanted time to raise their children and keep up their household. No other reason received significant mention.
Conclusion
No criteria have been established which define how much of her career a woman pharmacist should spend practicing pharmacy in order to make a worthwhile contribution to pharmacy manpower needs. The reader can draw his or her own conclusions from the data presented in this study. Although more women were working part-time at the time of the study than were working full-time, there undoubtedly are many times when part-time pharmacists are needed to fill gaps in ·work
schedules. The findings would not appear to support claims that schools and colleges of pharmacy should limit the number of women they enroll. Continuous studies should be made of the practice patterns of women pharmacists to see if the women's liberation movement results in the women spending more time practicing pharmacy than they have in the past. • References 1. "Report on Enrollment In Schools a nd Colleges of Pharmacy, First Semester, Term, or Qua rter, 1971-72," Amer. J. Pharm . Ed., 36, 125 (1972) 2. "Report of Executive Committee for the Association Year, 1950- 51," Amer. J. Pharm. Ed., 15, 544 (1951) 3. "Report on Enrollment In Schools a nd Colleges of Pharmacy, First Semester, T erm, or Qua rter, 1961 -62," Amer. J. Pharm. Ed., 26, 76 (1962) 4 . Sa lisbury, R. , "Will There Be A Woma n Pharmacist in the Health Care Center of Tomorrow?" paper presented a t Women a nd Pha rmacy Symposium, Philadelphia, P a . (Feb . 21, 1970) 5. Lewis, E. C., D eveloping Woman's Potential, Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa, 155 (1968) 6 . Lewis, E . C., "Emerging Social Patterns and the Potential of Women," Adult L eadership, 18, 20 (1969) 7. "Pharmacy Plan n er s Are Girl-Watching," Pharmacy News, 11, 4 (1970) 8. Bliven, C.W., "Pharmacy M a npower Requirements," speech presented to District 4 of the NABP (Nov . 2, 1971) 9. Schimpfhauser, F.T., a nd D 'Costa, A.G., "A Report : The Career D evelopment of Pharmacists," American Association of Colleges of Pha rmacy, 36 (1971) 10. Summary tables of these d a ta were published in 1969 by the U.S. D epartment of H ealth, Education, and Welfare. See Pha rmacy M a npower United States-1966, National Center for H ealth Sta tistics, Series 14, Number 2, Washington, D.C. (Au g . 1969) 11. "APhA Directory of Pha rmacists," American Pharlll.aceutical Association, Washington, D.C. (1964) 12. Ohvall, R.A., a nd Seh gal, S.D. , "Practice Continuity a nd Longevity of Women Pha rmacists," J APhA, NS9, 519 (1969) 13. P owers, L., Parmelle, R .D ., a nd Wiesenfelder, H ., "Pr actice Patterns of Women a nd M en Physicians," J. Med. Ed., 44, 4 88 (1969 ) 14. Francke, D.E ., Latiolais, C.J., Francke, G.N., a nd Ho, N.F.H., Mi rror to Hospital Pharmacy, M ac k Printing Company, Easton, P a ., 175 (1964) 15 . Ibid, 21
Vol. NS13, No. 11, November 1973
617
F
or the academic year 1971-72, 24.0 percent of the pharmacy students in the United States were women. 1 Twenty . years ago the comparable percentage was 9.4 percent, while ten years ago the figure was only 12.4 percent. 2 •3 This trend toward more women entering the pharmacy profession shows no sign of declining. Salisbury has stated that if present trends remain unchanged, in all likelihood most of the pharmacists in the health care center of the future if not all of them will be women. 4 The extent to which this growing proportion of women pharmacy students will practice after they become registered has been questioned. In other words how many women pharmacists actually will make pharmacy a career? Lewis has defined a "career woman" as follows-
. . . . a woman who is engaged in an activity outside her family responsibilities for which she receives a salary. This activity should require a sizeable amount of education or training in preparation, so that it cannot be undertaken casually. It should provide an opportunity for advancement as skills and experience increase. Finally, a career implies that ' the woman's family responsibilities do not overshadow her job. They must be combined more or less equally, but the career woman must be prepared to subordinate responsibilities of a family, if she has one, so that her job will not suffer. 5
women pharmacists Lewis' beliefs.
which
support
I'm not concerned about the ability of the female to make her contributions-! know she can and does, but you are dealing with biology here- and psychology. Regardless of what you do , when you put your chips on women as professional manpower sources, you're going to lose them-biology being what it is. Motherhood is motherhood. They drop out, they have a family, and then maybe they come back and are productive again. 7
Thus, conflict is possible between the likely partial utilization of women in pharmacy practice and the desirability of making pharmaceutical education most available to those who will practice full-time during their life. A recent statement by Bliven demonstrates the indecisiveness of data available on the practice patterns of women pharmacists. He reported that "if" women have shorter working careers and "perhaps" practice fewer hours per day, these are factors affecting our manpower needs. 8 This lack of data makes it difficult if not impossible to realize the true significance of the increasing numbers of women pharmacists. As a 1971 report stated, pharmacy has lagged in studying manpower needs and services as compared to other health professions. 9
Study of Women Pharmacists A national study of women pharmacists was undertaken during the summer of 1971 in an effort to understand better their practice patterns. A listing of pharmacists in the U.S. was obtained from N ABP which represented pharmacists licensed during the period from October 1965 through March 1968. 10 Names from the APhA Directory of Pharm·acists also were used to obtain the initial sample. 11 All names were selected systematically in an effort to have a random sample. A copy of a pretested questionnaire was mailed to each of 3,176 women pharmacists, 471 of which were returned as not deliverable. A total of 1,459 of the remaining 2, 705 women returned a completed questionnaire, 1,341 of which were sufficiently complete to be used in the study. The sample was geographically representative of practicing women pharmacists in the U.S . Forty-five women in the study were . nuns. They were not included in the following analyses since their practice patterns were thought to be atypical of women pharmacists in general. Of the remaining 1,296 pharmacists, 1,032 (80 percent) reported they were active in pharmacy practice, while 264 (20 percent) were inactive at the time of the study.
TABLE I
Hours Worked per Week by Active Respondents Lewis also has stated it is a fallacy to say that women-can have career patterns similar to those of men. Most women move into and out of the labor force depending on the needs and responsibilities within their families. 6 The executive director of NABP recently made the following statements about
Range of Hours Worked Per Week
405
Between 30 and 39 hours
128
12.5
29~hours
156
15.2
Between 20 and
614
* Seven
Percent
40 hours or more
39 . 5
Between 10 and 19 hours
193
18.8
Less than 10 hours
143
14 . 0
Total
* For biographical information on the authors, see page 677.
Active Respondents N
1 '025*
women did not report the number of hours they worked per week.
Journal of the AMERICAN PHARMACEUTICAL ASSOCIATION
100.0
Current Practice Patterns The women were asked to report the range of hours they were currently working per week. The data in Table I (page 614) show about two out of every five active women pharmacists were practicing full time, using a minimum of 40 hours per week as the standard for full-time practice. Apparently, women pharmacists are finding numerous part-time opportunities as evidenced by the distribution through the · four categories of part-time practice. A tabulation was made to determine what percentage of the women's potential working life was spent practicing pharmacy. The five categories of hours worked per week were divided into fifths, and each fraction of full-time practice was multiplied by the number of women in the corresponding category. Using the data from Table I and the number of inactive women pharmacists, a full-time equivalent was calculated. Table II (right) shows the women in the sample were working 54.8 percent of their working life. Thus if these data are representative of the career practice patterns of all women pharmacists it could be estimated that about 55 percent of an average woman pharmacist's fulltime employment potential is spent practicing pharmacy. An important factor to consider when analyzing the current practice patterns of women pharmacists is the variation in patterns between younger and older women. "Age" in this study was measured by the number of years since a woman had first become registered as a pharmacist. A "full-time equivalent" was calculated for various "age" categories of the sample. The data in Table III (right) show some minor variations. Women in the "middle-age" categories appear to work less than the other women, except for the women who had reached retirement age.
TABLE II
Current Full-Time Practice Equivalent for Respondents Women Pharmacists 405 128 156 193 143 264 1,289*
X X
X X X X
Full-Time Equivalent
5/ 5 4/5 3/4 2/5 1/5 0/ 5
405 . 0 102.4 93.6 77.2 28.6 0.0 706.8
706.8 - 54.8 percent , 1 289 * Seven women did not report the number of hours they worked per week.
TABLE III
Current Full-Time Practice Equivalents for Women Based on Years of Being a Pharmacist Women Pharmacists
Years Been a Pharmacist
Full-Time Equivalent
Less than 10 years
207
58.4%
10-14 years
232
53.0
15-19 years
215
51.6
20-24 years
240
54.9
25-39 years
286
57.4
94
45.6
40 years or more Total
1,274*
54.7%
* Six women did not report the number of hours they worked per week; 15 women did not report the number of years they had been pharmacists, a nd one woman reported neither.
TABLE IV
Career Practice Patterns of Respondents Full-Time Practice
Part-Time Practice
51.3%
26.8%
Notln Practice
Total
21.9%
100.0%
N = 1, 232* *Sixty-four women did not report their career practice patterns.
TABLE V
Career Practice Patterns The women were asked to report the percentage of time they had practiced full-time and the percentage spent practicing part-time since becoming pharmacists. These two percentages were combined and were referred to as "career practice patterns." Full time was defined as 40 hours per week or more. Table IV data (right) show that just over half of the average woman pharmacist's career was in full-time pharmacy practice, just over onequarter of her career was in part-time practice and just over one-fifth of her career was spent not practicing pharmacy. No attempt was made to determine specific hours worked during the
Fraction of · Full-Time
Percentages of Respondents in Full-Time Practice During Their Pharmacy Career Percent of Career In Full-Time Practice
N
100 percent 80 percent or more
Women Pharmacists Percent
226
18.3
394
32.0
60 percent or more
521
42.3
50 percent or more
626
50 . 8
Less than 50 percent
606
49.2
Less than 40 percent
528
42 . 9
Less than 20 percent
280
22.8
Total respondents
1' 232*
* Sixty-four women did not report their career practice patterns.
Vol. NS13, No. 11, November 1973
615
respondent's career due to the likely unreliability of such data. Thus a "full-time equivalent" could not be calculated using career practice data. These findings are similar to those of Ohvall and Sehgal who studied a smaller sample of women pharmacists in 1968. They reported that their average respondent practiced full~time 48.5 percent of her professional life, part-time 24.5 percent and did not practice 27.0 percent of her professional life. 12 The similarity in the findings of these two studies lends reliability to both. The sample of women was categorized by the percent of their career spent in the full-time practice of pharmacy, with the time spent in part-time practice ignored for this analysis. Just over 50 percent of the responding women had practiced full-time for 50 percent or more of their career (Table V, page 615). The figure of less than 20 percent having practiced full-time all of their career substantiates the fact that a high percentage of women temporarily do leave full-time practice. A study of a sample of 1,336 women physicians showed that 62.0 percent had practiced either full-time or parttime throughout their career .13 Only 33.2 percent of the responding women pharmacists in this study reported having practiced either full-time or part-time throughout their career.
TABLE VI
Current Hours Worked per Week by Type of Practice Range of Hours Worked per Week 40 hours or more Between 20 and 39 hours Less than 20 hours
Total
Community
Type of Practice Hospital
Comm.jHosp.
35 . 2% 28 . 6 36.2 100 . 0% (N = 710)*
55 . 5% 22.5 22.0 100.0% (N = 236)
30.5% 35 . 6 33.9 100.0% (N = 59)
* Three community pharmacists did not report the number of hours they were working per week. Note-Data in Table VI has been published previously in the September 1972 issue of American Journal of Hospital Pharmacy, 29: 9, 761-766.
TABLE VII
Career Practice Patterns of Respondents in Community and Hospital Pharmacy at Time of Study Career Practice Patterns Full-time Part-time Not in practice Total
Community
Type of Practice Hospital
Comm.jHosp.
53 . 5% 31.9 14.6 100.0% (N = 698)*
61.7% 22.4 15.9 100.0% (N = 233)
50.0% 32.2 17 . 8 100.0% (N = 57)
*Fifteen community, three hospital, and two community/hospital pharmacists did not report their career practice patterns. ' Note-Data in Table VII has been published previously in the September 1972 issue of the American Journal of Hospital Pharmacy, 29: 9, 761-766.
TABLE VIII
Practice Patterns by Type of Pharmacy ' Practice A comparison was made between the career practice patterns of women pharmacists in community and hospital practice. Tables VI and VII (right) show there was a tendency for hospital pharmacists to spend a greater percentage of their time in the full-time practice of pharmacy, based on both current and career practice patterns. Francke has recognized the need for part-time pharmacists in hospital pharmacy. He specifically has suggested that women pharmacists be employed on a part-time basis in those hospitals where the demand for pharmacy service is too low to justify employing a fulltime pharmacist. 14 He recommended that ASHP establish and maintain a registry of experienced women pharmacists who preferred to practice in hospitals on a part-time basis only and that this information be made available to small hospitals and related institutions.15 It was probable that some of the respondents who were practicing one type of pharmacy at the time of the study had practiced in another type of practice during their career. This 616
Mean Percentages of Career Time Spent in Various Types of Pharmacy Practice, Full-Time and Part-Time Career Practice Patterns
Community Pharmacy
Full-time Part-time Time in practice Not in practice Total
36% 21 57
Type of Practice Hospital Total Pharmacy Comm./Hosp. Other 51% 26 77
15% 5
20
1%
Total
78% 22 100% (N = 1, 180)*
* 116 women did not complete the section asking for percentage breakdowns of tim<'; spent in full-time and part-time practice in various types of pharmacy practice.
TABLE IX
Career Practice Patterns of Respondents Based on Marital Status Career Practice Patterns
Single
69.9%
61.5%
6.7
31.1
14.2
20.1
7.8
24.7
15.9
18.4
85.5%
Part-time
Total
Husband Deceased
44.2%
Full-time Not in practice
Marital Status Separated or Divorced Married
100.0%
(N = 144)*
100 . 0 %
(N = 956)*
100.0%
(N = 51)*
100.0%
(N = 81)*
* Seven single, 43 married, three separated or divorced and 11 women whose husbands were deceased did not report their career practice patterns.
Journal of the AMERICAN PHARMACEUTICAL ASSOCIATION
TABLE X
Career Practice Patterns of Respondents Based on Geographic Location Women Pharmacists
AACP District
Career Practice Patterns FullPartTime Time
Total In Practice
( %)
( %)
(%)
98
50 . 1
24 . 4
74 . 5
2. Del. , D.C. , Md., N .J., N.Y., Pa., Va ., W . Va.
270
47.8
28.3
76. 1
3. Ala. , Fla. , Ga., Miss., N.C., S.C. , Tenn.
145
57 . 1
22 . 9
80 . 0
4. Ill., Ind. , Ky., Mich., Ohio, Wise.
277
46.4
31.4
77 . 8
70
41.8
36.6
78 . 4
128
67.5
16.9
84 . 4
80
45 . 2
30 . 9
76.1
163
55 . 1
23 . 2
78.3
1231*
51.3
26.8
78.1
1. Conn. , Me., Mass. , N.H. , R.I. , Vt.
5. Ia., Minn., Neb., N .D ., S.D. 6. Ark., Kan ., La., Mo. , Okla. , Tex. 7. Alaska, Idaho, Mont. , Ore. , Wash., Wyo. 8. Ariz., Calif., Colo. , Hawaii, Nev. , N.M., Utah Total
*Sixty-four women did not report their career practice p a tterns a nd one did not report her geogra phic location .
should be remembered when interpreting the data in Table VII. However, the women were asked to report the percentage of their career they had spent in the full-time and part-time practice of various types of practice. The data in Table VIII (page 616) show how the careers of the women pharmacists were divided between type of practice and between full-time and part-time practice. For example if this sample represents the career patterns of all women pharmacists it could be said that 36 percent of the potential manpower supplied by women pharmacists is spent in the full-time practice of community pharmacy. Practice Patterns by Marital Status
An additional analysis of career practice patterns was made based on the women pharmacists' marital status. Table IX data (page 616) show, as would be expected, that the single women had spent a much higher percentage of their career practicing both full-time and in total than had the married women. The women whose husbands were deceased usually were older women. Their high percentage of total time spent practicing pharmacy might indicate that as the group of married women get older they will spend more of their time practicing pharmacy. The career practice patterns of women in different geographic areas of the country were compared. Geographic areas were defined by the eight districts of AACP. The data in Ta_ble X (above) show the greatest variation from the mean to have been in AACP Districts 5 and 6. The women in District 5 worked less full-time, but rriore part-time, while about two-thirds· of the career time of the women in District 6 was spent in full-time practice.
Other Findings
Other analyses of the data collected from the women pharmacists were made1. Women in the child-bearing age did not drop out of practice but rather reduced their number of hours worked per week. 2. The size of the community in which the ·women were practicing did not appear to affect their practice patterns. 3. More than half of the women not practicing at the time of the study did not plan to practice during the next five years either. Less than three percent of the women who were practicing at the time of the study did not plan to practice during the next five years. 4. Women who had ever left practice for more than one month were asked the reasons why and 7 5 percent said because of pregnancy or taking care of their children. 5. Women who had ever practiced parttime were asked why they did so rather than practice full-time , and 76 percent said because they wanted time to raise their children and keep up their household. No other reason received significant mention.
Conclusion
No criteria have been established which define how much of her career a woman pharmacist should spend practicing pharmacy in order to make a worthwhile contribution to pharmacy manpower needs. The reader can draw his or her own conclusions from the data presented in this study. Although more women were working part-time at the time of the study than were working full-time, there undoubtedly are many times when part-time pharmacists are needed to fill gaps in ·work
schedules. The findings would not appear to support claims that schools and colleges of pharmacy should limit the number of women they enroll. Continuous studies should be made of the practice patterns of women pharmacists to see if the women's liberation movement results in the women spending more time practicing pharmacy than they have in the past. • References 1. "Report on Enrollment In Schools a nd Colleges of Pharmacy, First Semester, Term, or Qua rter, 1971-72," Amer. J. Pharm . Ed., 36, 125 (1972) 2. "Report of Executive Committee for the Association Year, 1950- 51," Amer. J. Pharm. Ed., 15, 544 (1951) 3. "Report on Enrollment In Schools a nd Colleges of Pharmacy, First Semester, T erm, or Qua rter, 1961 -62," Amer. J. Pharm. Ed., 26, 76 (1962) 4 . Sa lisbury, R. , "Will There Be A Woma n Pharmacist in the Health Care Center of Tomorrow?" paper presented a t Women a nd Pha rmacy Symposium, Philadelphia, P a . (Feb . 21, 1970) 5. Lewis, E. C., D eveloping Woman's Potential, Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa, 155 (1968) 6 . Lewis, E . C., "Emerging Social Patterns and the Potential of Women," Adult L eadership, 18, 20 (1969) 7. "Pharmacy Plan n er s Are Girl-Watching," Pharmacy News, 11, 4 (1970) 8. Bliven, C.W., "Pharmacy M a npower Requirements," speech presented to District 4 of the NABP (Nov . 2, 1971) 9. Schimpfhauser, F.T., a nd D 'Costa, A.G., "A Report : The Career D evelopment of Pharmacists," American Association of Colleges of Pha rmacy, 36 (1971) 10. Summary tables of these d a ta were published in 1969 by the U.S. D epartment of H ealth, Education, and Welfare. See Pha rmacy M a npower United States-1966, National Center for H ealth Sta tistics, Series 14, Number 2, Washington, D.C. (Au g . 1969) 11. "APhA Directory of Pha rmacists," American Pharlll.aceutical Association, Washington, D.C. (1964) 12. Ohvall, R.A., a nd Seh gal, S.D. , "Practice Continuity a nd Longevity of Women Pha rmacists," J APhA, NS9, 519 (1969) 13. P owers, L., Parmelle, R .D ., a nd Wiesenfelder, H ., "Pr actice Patterns of Women a nd M en Physicians," J. Med. Ed., 44, 4 88 (1969 ) 14. Francke, D.E ., Latiolais, C.J., Francke, G.N., a nd Ho, N.F.H., Mi rror to Hospital Pharmacy, M ac k Printing Company, Easton, P a ., 175 (1964) 15 . Ibid, 21
Vol. NS13, No. 11, November 1973
617