The place of women in a changing profession
CMAJ 1997;156:1096
© 1997 Canadian Medical Association
Over the past 2 years it has been widely reported that about 50% of first-year students at and new graduates of Canadian medical schools are women. At French-language medical schools the proportion is higher -- women earned 62% of the degrees awarded by those 3 schools in 1996.
According to the CMA's physician database, women now account for 26% of active physicians and are heavily represented in the younger age groups. More than 60% of female physicians are GPs or FPs, compared with only 48% of male physicians. In rural communities women and men are represented in much the same proportion.
A common misperception is that because of the sex balance in medicine's graduating classes, women very shortly will account for half of practising physicians. The CMA estimates that if women maintain existing proportions in undergraduate and postgraduate training and if physician attrition due to death, retirement and emigration remains at current levels, women will not account for 50% of practising physicians until about 2030.
This column was written by Lynda Buske, chief, physician resources information planning, CMA. Readers may send potential research topics to Patrick Sullivan (sullip@cma.ca; 613 731-8610 or 800 663-7336, ext. 2126; fax 613 523-0937).
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