Female NHS consultants are closing the ‘gender promotion gap’

Further research indicates that women have better health outcomes when treated by other women. Photograph: Rubberball/Nicole Hill/Getty Images

The number of women becoming hospital consultants has jumped dramatically, narrowing the “gender promotion gap” with men, researchers have found.

The rise was due to an unusually large number of NHS vacancies created as older consultants decided to retire during the pandemic, according to the researchers, who compared the “considerable shift” to women taking on industrial jobs during the second world war.