The Glass Ceiling Phenomenon in Medicine Analysis of the State of Human Resources of the Medical Profession in the Republic of Croatia*

Maja Vizjak – Institute for Research Migration,10000 Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract: Human resources in medicine are becoming more and more numer- ous, it is a constantly growing sector that is strengthening qualitatively and quantitatively in Croatia. Medical women with completed post-graduate studies and with elections for scientific positions dominate to a decent degree, while the selection for higher scientific positions is dominated by men. Women in medicine dominate numerically, and in 5 out of a total of 61 hospital institutions, there are more doctors, but not in leading management positions. Currently, there are no female directors of clinical hospital centers and clinical hospitals as the largest hospital institutions in Croatia. When representatives are elected in professional chambers, male representatives dominate. Entrepreneurship in medicine is dominated by men, only in the field of general medical practice is it dominated by women. Analyzing the ratios of representation of women and men according to hierarchies in medicine, one gets the impression that there are equals among equals. The behavior pattern of the practice of deciding on promotion, decisions on entrepreneurship, and taking on management or representative roles are on the side of men. This paper aims to investigate the phenomenon of the glass ceiling in medicine in Croatia. The research meth- odology is a survey questionnaire and analysis of statistical data from reports in medicine. For additional data analysis, the Statistical Package for Social Sciences Analysis Older was used, which confirmed that older age groups of women express stronger feelings towards the existence of the glass ceiling. The contribution of the research is to provide insight into the analysis of human resources in medicine and management in healthcare organizations in Croatia.

10th International Scientific Conference ERAZ 2024 – Conference Proceedings: KNOWLEDGE BASED SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT,  hybrid – online, virtually and in person, Lisbon, Portugal, June 6, 2024

ERAZ Conference Proceedings published by: Association of Economists and Managers of the Balkans – Belgrade, Serbia

ERAZ conference partners: Faculty of Logistics, University of Maribor, Maribor (Slovenia); University of National and World Economy – UNWE, Sofia (Bulgaria); Center for Political Research and Documentation (KEPET), Research Laboratory of the Department of Political Science of University of Crete (Greece); Institute of Public Finance – Zagreb (Croatia); Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Ohrid, University of St. Kliment Ohridski from Bitola (North Macedonia)

ERAZ Conference 2024 Conference Proceedings: ISBN 978-86-80194-86-8, ISSN 2683-5568,

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31410/ERAZ.2024

Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission. 

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