female dominated?!

[jesse14]

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I just started My MSc.PT at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario and there are close to 80 people in my class. I was very surprised to find out that there are maybe 65 women and about 15 men. That is a very disproportionate ration! I'm not complaining or anything, but i'm just wondering if this is the case within the profession? Why is it so female dominated? Medicine, Dentistry, and Chiropractic all seem to have about a 50/50 split... what gives with physio??

 

[Buckeye4life]

Good question. I don't have any certain information on this, but I would guess that PT may attract a lot of women because it is a good paying job where you can easily balance an active career and a family. Women usually also tend to be better nurturers which is very important in therapy. Finally, PT was originally designed for injured world war vets and they were mostly if not all women, and men slowly trickled into the profession once it started to gain mainstream acceptance. Apparently this trend hasn't changed that much, but as you can see there are a lot more XYs than there used to be. My class of 35 had 10 guys.

 

[callmecrazy]

I don't have any facts about the reasons, but the above post seems logical. If the field started as female-dominated, then males would be more reluctant to follow suit, and unfortunate effect of gender roles.

Yes, the gender indifference does carry into the profession though. APTA claims it to be a 70/30 split for PTs and an even more unbalanced 90/10 for PTAs.

 

[Snake Doctor]

Yeah, I noticed that too when I was looking at the class pics for Northwestern.

I don't want to stir up any controversy here (esp. because I'm considering PT myself), but I feel as a guy I need to carry the financial burden of the family. Salary wise, other health careers are much more lucrative. Then again, no amount of money can provide job satisfaction (and PT provides great job security). It's not an easy decision with the way some schools cost (i.e. USC), not to mention undergraduate loans that carry over 🙁

 

[ONstudentPT]

I just started My MSc.PT at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario and there are close to 80 people in my class. I was very surprised to find out that there are maybe 65 women and about 15 men. That is a very disproportionate ration! I'm not complaining or anything, but i'm just wondering if this is the case within the profession? Why is it so female dominated? Medicine, Dentistry, and Chiropractic all seem to have about a 50/50 split... what gives with physio??

Hisotorically PT started out as a female profession. For many years PTs were doctors helpers with not too much autonomy. I think more and more males are begining to enter the profession now. As PT began moving more into the private sector with potential to make more money more men began getting into the profession as they were most often the bread winners of the family and needed to be able to have enough money to support the family.

 

[truthseeker]

Sometimes I like being dominated