Men and women as pharmacy managers

The managerial position held by men and women pharmacists in three primary practice settings were examined and compared. A nationwide survey, using a pretested 12-page questionnaire, was sent to 2100 pharmacists in hospitals, independently owned pharmacies, and chain-store pharmacies. The variables examined by discriminant analysis were sex, age, years with employer, the number of times a pharmacist left practice, and educational level. A total of 767 completed questionnaires were used in the analysis for a 39.6% response rate, and 57.6% of the sample was women. Women were found to be significantly under represented in managerial positions in all three practice settings; however, there were a greater percentage of women in managerial positions in hospital pharmacies than in independently owned or chain-store pharmacies (p less than or equal to 0.001). When age was controlled in the analysis, there were more women at the staff level than men in all the age categories above 25. The discriminant analysis showed that advanced education was a significant factor in a pharmacist's position in hospital pharmacies but not in community pharmacies. The sex of the pharmacist showed the highest discriminating power in classifying the position of community pharmacists. Women pharmacists were under represented in managerial positions in all three practice environments. However, hospital pharmacy had a greater percentage of women in managerial positions than community pharmacy.