Women in Medicine
Women now make up 51% of western medical school trainees, yet we are vastly under-represented in specialties, on boards, as heads of department, as leaders of our medical community.
We are as equally interested in everything as men when we embark on our medical training, but somewhere along the way we seem to lose interest… or lose heart. We also earn significantly less than our male colleagues performing similar jobs, even when reduced working hours are taken into account. It is all too easy to say that we work fewer hours, take time off to have families, work part time – but that is certainly not true for all of us.
What is it about the culture of medicine, and the way we are in it, that has created this situation?
The current culture of medicine does not suit women, as reflected in their higher levels of psychological distress and their lower levels of ‘achievement’ and yet, recent studies have shown that patients do better with female doctors.
What can medicine learn from its women doctors?
What are the special qualities that women offer, that are worth honouring, nurturing and bringing to the profession as a whole; that we may all benefit from the beauty that women are and bring?
Latest Articles on Women in Medicine
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The Pill
Mentors, Sponsors and Gender Inequity
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Being a woman
Violence against women: Dr Denis Mukwege and the Nobel Peace Prize
Women and Alcohol – The Lily Livers
Women are Rising: are we ready?
Why aren’t women leading the way?
A man in a woman’s body – there is another way
Women of Medicine – can we change the world?
Sexual Abuse in Surgery
Why women make great surgeons
What does a doctor look like?
Women at the heart of medicine
