With more and more women entering medicine and with the rising age of the average medical school applicant, the question is when to have a family? Will I have time to date? get married? have kids? be a professional?

Mommd.com (http://www.mommd.com/changingfacehealthcare.shtml) posted an article I read about this a while ago and I thought this would be good discussion for the women that are out there, the med students, residents, fellows, and doctors.

Where is medicine going with the increase in women who were predominantly the stay at home parent? As mentioned in another thread, part-time residencies seem to be popping up as I read an article that even surgery was offering some part-time residencies where two residents share the load. Or what about the increase of on-site childcare at the workplace, or even maternity and paternity leaves for residents/fellows? There are so many topics to discuss under this umbrella of women in medicine and the changes implemented, feel free to share your opinion on the topics.

Some links to share:

compiled at NIH of women's health professions (http://www.training.nih.gov/careers/careercenter/women.html)

American Medical Women's Association (http://www.amwa-doc.org/index.cfm?objectid=523745A2-D567-0B25-580D2BBCFF5CAD29)

Overview of Women in Academic Medicine published by AAMC, OCt 2006 (http://www.aamc.org/data/aib/aibissues/aibvol6_no7.pdf)

I'm praying to go straight from undergrad to med school... i'd LIKE to get married during med school (late years) or shortly thereafter and have children soon after that... Of course, who knows what the next week will bring much less the next six years...

I think we're going to see doctors on average working fewer hours as more women enter into the profession, and more 'flexible' scheduling as far as residency and jobs go. The medical profession may be reluctant to change but it may have to when half it's members have heavier family responsibilities. Also, I think men will also want to see more flex times becuase they are less likely to have stay at home wives in this time and age.