Male-dominated Field

[deleted316655]

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As everyone knows medicine, or at least certain parts of it, is a male-dominated field. While more women are going in to medicine now, it still remains that most doctors are guys. Do you think that this can pose problems for female students and doctors, or do you think that the success of a doctor is determined only by his/her effort and ability?

 

[Hifey]

Based on my experience, as far as medical students go, the population is approximately 50 50 with maybe women taking a slight lead. As far as certain specialities, yes some of them are male dominated and will be a little harder for women to rise to the top in. However, nothing is impossible. Especially if you're female 😉 Seriously though women have come a long way in less than 100 years since being given the right to vote so I don't think this will be a major issue.

 

[FrkyBgStok]

i was just wondering why people still think it is a male dominated field when every med school class hovers at a 50%-50% mix, and then this thread pops up.

spooky.

 

[silverhorse84]

I remember going through the MSAR last year and seeing that every school (except mine) is at least 50/50 and now the trend is actually headed towards >50% women, <50% men.

What that means, is that as we go through training, women will not be the minority - there may be less women in the generations above us who are still working, but as we get older that trend will greatly change.

Now, certain specialties are more men or more women, and I think the people who chose those specialties will be fine with it. Some women get along better with men - and I would think it's more likely that the women in specialties with greater men are these women. Vice versa for men.

 

[RevivedPreMed]

Although most med school classes are about 50/50 you're still going to be interacting with the older generation of doctors while going through training and when you start working. The majority of older male doctors I've interacted with have been great and encouraging but I have to admit I have had one or two make comments (questioning me persistently about my desires to go into medicine) thinking they were generally interested to later find out from his colleagues that he does that to all female docs and premeds because he doesn't think women should be in the field.

The future will diminish most of this but just be prepared for the potential to come across a few old minded docs.

 

[mmmcdowe]

Yeah, it just has to do with the past generations. All the old white deans of medicine and department chairs haven't died yet. There are still a few male dominated arenas, some of the surgical sub specialties for sure. At the same time, I believe that there are also a few female dominated specialties (at least in terms of the new generations of docs) as well. Pediatrics comes to mind, but I think that OBGYN is as well or will be.

Speaking of

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hrgz68mwX0U

 

[mdbound1987]

Still, perhaps many of the male doctors look down upon women because they are women. Discrimination between males and females still occurs often.

I definitely agree with this. This happens with minorities too (not trying to start a URM debate here; I'm just stating a similar reality).