Gender gap spans world

The 2004 AVMA-Pfizer Business Practices Study shows that the gender gap is still alive and well. From 1997 to 2003, male practitioners' salaries rose faster than women's. And research shows gender-gap issues are a cross-industry, international problem.

In fact, even with heightened international awareness of gender issues, no country has managed to eliminate the gender gap, according to a study by the World Economic Forum. Sweden ranked first in the study, which measured the extent to which women in 58 countries have achieved equality with men in economic participation, economic opportunity, political empowerment, educational attainment, and health and well-being.

The United States ranked 17th in comparison to the other 57 countries. "The United States performs particularly well on educational attainment and only slightly less so on economic participation and political empowerment," according to the study. "However, the United States ranks poorly on the specific dimensions of economic opportunity and health and well-being, compromised by meager maternity leave, lack of maternity-leave benefits, and limited government-provided childcare." The large number of adolescents bearing children and the high mortality ratio given the relatively high number of physicians available also bring the United States down in the World Economic Forum's ranking.