Women in Pharmacy...

USAF_Dentman · Jul 2, 2005

Why is there so many women in pharmacy? I was looking at some of the first year class profiles and often times there were 2x as many women as men, and just about all first year classes had more women than men.

Is it because pharmacy has a more predictable lifestyle? I think pharm may not be as hectic, especially for a woman who wants a family and a professional career compared to other careers...

Any thoughts?

PharmD4Me · Jul 2, 2005

I would think you are right. Pharmacy offeres the ability for a woman to work part time, make excellent money, and still be able to spend a great deal of time with their family (if and when they have one).

Then again, I'm a man, so I may be way off base. I don't know if pharm women are even thinking about their future family at the young age of 21-22 when they apply. This is better left up to the girls to answer.

rougemarie · Jul 2, 2005

Agree w/ above opinion, I'm a woman and most of the women pharmacist I met in the hospital agree to the flexible part-time hour with decent income and on-site child care facility, not to mention good medical benefit and maternity leave (at least from the hospital that I worked in). Granted, when your kid is sick, who do you think will drive him/her to see the dr? your husband? naaaah...... 😛 Just visit your local ER or pediatrics, most of them are moms and their screaming kids (so before you complain about the woman with her small children running around your counter, think twice, this lady is raising your future care taker, one of these children would be your doctor/lawyer/your nurse in the nursing home when you're 87 years old. Rather than getting grumpy, make a small talk with the kids, distract them a bit, mom will appreciate this a lot! ). Lord knows that being a mom is a single hardest job on earth & thank God for the field of pharmacy, which offer such flexibility 🙂 I'm all for women, esp. mothers being pharmacists/care taker, noone is better prepared for this, in my humble opinion.

Sorry to go off in a tangent here, I hope noone will take this personally :laugh:

Btw, even the director of the department in my local hospital is a women and she's one of the coolest person I know 😉

Laferno · Jul 2, 2005

I think there are so many women in Pharmacy not only because women tend to choose Pharmacy over other medical fields, but also because men sort of look down on Pharmacy. Alot of the pre-health guys I knew had that dominating type-A personality where they had to be in charge and get respect. They felt they get more of that by being a doctor, dentist, etc. Subsequently, they would never want to be a pharmacist where they are sometimes viewed as inferior to many other health care persons.

That is just another take on it, don't flame me. I am a guy going into Pharmacy myself.

TrojanAnteater · Jul 2, 2005

Laferno said:
I think there are so many women in Pharmacy not only because women tend to choose Pharmacy over other medical fields, but also because men sort of look down on Pharmacy. Alot of the pre-health guys I knew had that dominating type-A personality where they had to be in charge and get respect. They felt they get more of that by being a doctor, dentist, etc. Subsequently, they would never want to be a pharmacist where they are sometimes viewed as inferior to many other health care persons.

That is just another take on it, don't flame me. I am a guy going into Pharmacy myself.

heh, this old lady (>75) across the street keeps asking my mom why on earth I need to go to school for 4 years to become a pharmacist. Gotta just have a sense of humor about it, the general public doesn't know pharmacists now have to earn doctorates. But then again, those of us guys who do WANT to do pharmacy have a pretty good situation to be in huh? 😀

okieRx · Jul 2, 2005

"I was looking at some of the first year class profiles and often times there were 2x as many women as men, and just about all first year classes had more women than men."

This is one of the reasons I think the demand for pharmacists will continue into the future, even though numbers of incoming students are increasing and new schools of pharmacy are forming.

gablet · Jul 5, 2005

okieRx said:
"I was looking at some of the first year class profiles and often times there were 2x as many women as men, and just about all first year classes had more women than men."

This is one of the reasons I think the demand for pharmacists will continue into the future, even though numbers of incoming students are increasing and new schools of pharmacy are forming.

😕

USAF_Dentman · Jul 5, 2005

gablet said:
😕

I think he meant that since more women in pharmacy = more who will work part time = greater demand for full timers?

aubieRx · Jul 5, 2005

PharmD4Me said:
Then again, I'm a man, so I may be way off base. I don't know if pharm women are even thinking about their future family at the young age of 21-22 when they apply. This is better left up to the girls to answer.

I am thinking about a future family and I am 21. I figured out long ago that in order (to quote the seinfeld show) avoid having a "Barren sterile existence that ends when you do" you gotta have kids.

Pharmacy appealed to me in part because of the "neatness" of the job. I originally wanted to be a vet but thought that that lifestyle would be more suited for a man. I thought "oh no being a vet might be butchish"

lol.

fub5623 · Jul 5, 2005

no more women pharmacist, they're so damn picky.

gablet · Jul 5, 2005

fub5623 said:
no more women pharmacist, they're so damn picky.

that's nice.

are you saying that you don't want to work with a woman or are you saying that you don't want a woman pharmacist because she will be too picky with your meds? 😛

ForgetMeNot · Jul 5, 2005

aubieRx said:
I am thinking about a future family and I am 21. I figured out long ago that in order (to quote the seinfeld show) avoid having a "Barren sterile existence that ends when you do" you gotta have kids.

Pharmacy appealed to me in part because of the "neatness" of the job. I originally wanted to be a vet but thought that that lifestyle would be more suited for a man. I thought "oh no being a vet might be butchish"

lol.

Some of us want to have that barren sterile existence.... 😀

fub5623 · Jul 5, 2005

gablet said:
that's nice.

are you saying that you don't want to work with a woman or are you saying that you don't want a woman pharmacist because she will be too picky with your meds? 😛

picky with my meds?
you'll get your correct medication no matter what, im talking about when typing direction.
I've been a tech for 2 years both of our staff pharmacist are male, but ocasionally we get our female pharmacist, geez they're a handful
How many other ways can albuterol inhaler be administered other than by mouth?
no reason to put PO, just a waste of laser ink.

gablet · Jul 5, 2005

fub5623 said:
picky with my meds?
you'll get your correct medication no matter what, im talking about when typing direction.
I've been a tech for 2 years both of our staff pharmacist are male, but ocasionally we get our female pharmacist, geez they're a handful
How many other ways can albuterol inhaler be administered other than by mouth?
no reason to put PO, just a waste of laser ink.

I was being silly - of course you would get the same meds!

Now you are just stereotyping all females based on one. Based on your response, I think that the problem may not be the females with whom you work.

aubieRx · Jul 5, 2005

ForgetMeNot said:
Some of us want to have that barren sterile existence.... 😀

haha elaine on seinfeld did

I used to feel that way. But I have since changed my mind...I think almost everyone eventually changes their mind about it..its just a matter of when

KUMoose · Jul 5, 2005

fub5623 said:
How many other ways can albuterol inhaler be administered other than by mouth?
no reason to put PO, just a waste of laser ink.

This is a country where they put such warning labels as:

On an iron - Don't iron cloths on body (So that's the key)
On a curling iron - For external use only (now call me crazy, but I'm not sure I want anything hot entering my body, but a Toti.)

And the best one...
On the can of pepper spray I got my ex-- Caution, may irritate eyes. (Wow, good to know that it's doing what it's suppose too).

Welcome to the litigious world of product liability. 😀

ForgetMeNot · Jul 6, 2005

aubieRx said:
haha elaine on seinfeld did

I used to feel that way. But I have since changed my mind...I think almost everyone eventually changes their mind about it..its just a matter of when

Yeah, my family is still waiting for me (and my older sister) to make that change. :laugh:

For now, the only grandkids are the four-legged kind!

gablet · Jul 6, 2005

Children will change your life and perspective forever. If they do not, you are doing a crappy job. Please do not have children just because you think you should.

Sorry to sound harsh. I see too many neglected kids because the parents are unwilling to give up at least some of thier old lives.

I am happy to read time and again on this website that those in pre-pharm or pharmacy school schedule thier studying so that family time is uninterrupted. That is great!!!! It's great that your children see that you better yourself by going to school and learning to do what you love. Then, you separate yourself from school and give them the love and attention that they deserve.

paddyboy777 · Jul 6, 2005

okieRx said:
"I was looking at some of the first year class profiles and often times there were 2x as many women as men, and just about all first year classes had more women than men."

This is one of the reasons I think the demand for pharmacists will continue into the future, even though numbers of incoming students are increasing and new schools of pharmacy are forming.

A study conducted a few years ago showed that average work week of women in Pharmacy was about 38 hrs/wk vs 44 for men. Taking into account people moonlighting, the difference due to women on the job market is not that big.

Also, working part time is a luxury in the current market. However, when the job market tightens up (in 4 years, we will have about 9500 grads/yr) part timers will feel safer with full time jobs.

aubieRx · Jul 6, 2005

gablet said:
Sorry to sound harsh. I see too many neglected kids because the parents are unwilling to give up at least some of thier old lives.

.

Thats why I know i can't have kids and go to pharmacy school. its one or the other. I would be tempted to ignore the kids and focus entirely on pharmacy school.

in my mind having kids seems like something that would completely change someone's life. I think i would enjoy those challenges but i would never undertake them at the same time as a doctorate unless i had plenty of help.

it really does make sense to get the pharm degree first because then you have the money to make their lives better.

peopel are having babies in their 40s these days which (to me) is really late to wait but I suppose waiting until I am 25 will not be that big of a deal.

SomeGuy · Jul 6, 2005

A study conducted a few years ago showed that average work week of women in Pharmacy was about 38 hrs/wk vs 44 for men.

That means that males are working ~16% more hours per week. I think that's actually a large number. That's a great deal more productivity. And don't forget that such research also doesn't include the increased number of females who take time off for family reasons for who knows how long.

As well, with sharply higher salaries, we can assume that people will stay in the workforce less as well. Retirement dates will move up.

What is the retirement plan like at many hospitals and pharmacies?

paddyboy777 · Jul 8, 2005

SomeGuy said:
That means that males are working ~16% more hours per week. I think that's actually a large number. That's a great deal more productivity. And don't forget that such research also doesn't include the increased number of females who take time off for family reasons for who knows how long.

As well, with sharply higher salaries, we can assume that people will stay in the workforce less as well. Retirement dates will move up.

What is the retirement plan like at many hospitals and pharmacies?

Don't know about early retirements due to higher salary - particularly if the person is the only/primary breadwinner. Americans do not save much money - the more they make, the more they spend. Also, the retirement age is going up to 69.

ZpackSux · Jul 8, 2005

Retirement has less to do with age but rather depends on cash flow.

Regardless of age, if you have a cash flow to sustain your current lifestyle without working, then you can retire. If not, then you can't. It's quite simple.

sandyliu113 · Jul 8, 2005

PharmD4Me said:
I would think you are right. Pharmacy offeres the ability for a woman to work part time, make excellent money, and still be able to spend a great deal of time with their family (if and when they have one).

Then again, I'm a man, so I may be way off base. I don't know if pharm women are even thinking about their future family at the young age of 21-22 when they apply. This is better left up to the girls to answer.

Knock on wood, I will be the ripe age of 29 when I get into Pharmacy school.. That's why I was asking...

Women in Pharmacy...

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