The gender imbalance among speech and language therapists and students

Int J Lang Commun Disord. 2001:36 Suppl:167-72. doi: 10.3109/13682820109177878.

Abstract

Speech and language therapy is still a predominantly female profession. This paper reports the numbers and percentages of males among the population of student speech and language therapists in the UK in 1999-2000. The numbers imply that there is no prospect of redressing the gender imbalance in the near future. Information was gathered by means of a questionnaire to male speech and language therapy students and male therapists on the reasons for their career choice and their occupation-related experience concerning their gender. Most therapists reported advantages from their gender but a minority reported difficulties arising from being a man in the speech and language therapy profession. The issue of working alone with children is identified as being in urgent need of resolution.

MeSH terms

  • Career Choice
  • Female
  • Forecasting
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Scotland
  • Sex Distribution
  • Speech-Language Pathology* / trends
  • Students, Health Occupations / statistics & numerical data*
  • Workforce