Women in Chiropractic

By James McChesney

The Parker College School for Advanced and Related Studies (SARS) recently commissioned the Parker College Center for Institutional Research and Analysis (CIRA) to initiate a survey designed to discover and define the continuing-education needs of female chiropractors. The SARS wanted to know, among other things, how well the continuing education needs of female chiropractors in the field are being met and if the needs of female chiropractors are different from their male counterparts.

The survey, the first of its kind ever undertaken in chiropractic, asked female practitioners questions dealing primarily with their needs in continuing education. Essentially, the SARS wanted to know about what is important to female practitioners. Accordingly, in addition to exploring the continuing education concerns of female chiropractors, some sectors of the survey inquired into practice and referral patterns, income, technique preferences and more.

Over 3,700 surveys were mailed to practicing female chiropractors across the country. More than 12 percent were returned, which is quite good considering that pollsters who can achieve an eight percent return believe they have done well.

According to the report, the typical practicing female chiropractor is 36-50 years old, married and without children. She is a full-time practitioner who has been in practice for 4-10 years. Over half of the respondents hold a baccalaureate degree in addition to the DC. And female chiropractors are no different from other women when it comes to who is responsible for carrying out most of the household duties. They are.

The techniques most preferred by women practitioners are the diversified and Thompson techniques. This differs slightly from national norms for all chiropractors, where preferred techniques include the diversified and flexion/distraction techniques.

Many women included comments with their surveys. Among the most interesting were those calling for sensitivity training for male DCs, and those that called for sensitivity training for female DCs.

Parker College is considering including the "Women in Chiropractic" survey in its standard repertoire of mensuration instruments. None of the other chiropractic colleges seem to be currently seeking to serve the particular needs of women in chiropractic. Female chiropractors have special needs that have long been overlooked; Parker College is ideally situated to address those needs.