Women doctors less likely to hold top positions

WOMEN hold just 26% of medical consultant posts and only outnumber men at senior level in the area of psychiatry.

Figures presented by sociologist Dr Evelyn Mahon at the Irish Medical Organisation's (IMO) annual general meeting showed even though 79% of entrants to medicine are female, men are more likely to progress to the highest levels.

In a talk entitled Medicine Gender and working practice: working mothers and caring fathers, Dr Mahon said a macho culture in medicine, reinforced by intensive male networking, tended to marginalise women.

Child-bearing and domestic duties also affected career progress. As a result, women doctors were more likely to peak in their careers in their 50s and 60s, when children were reared, whereas men tended to reach senior positions in their 40s and 50s. This was according to Dr Mary Gray, who also spoke at the weekend AGM in Killarney.

Dr Gray said studies showed female doctors worked longer hours as they got older; spent an average of five hours a week cooking, half the average for employed women and five hours doing housework, quarter the average time spent by employed women generally.

Studies also showed juggling a career with raising a family did not have a negative affect on women's health nor did it take from career satisfaction. Women were able to prioritise to adapt to their living requirements, Dr Gray said.

However, Dr Mahon said, because domestic duties often forced women doctors into job-sharing or part-time work, it lessened their chances of reaching the top. A study in the Netherlands found 40% of men would also like the opportunity to work part-time. Those who had that chance reported closer relationships with their children, a healthier sex life and better health.

Women who enter medicine often have more noble reasons than men, many seeing it as a vocation, Dr Mahon said. High pay and respect for the profession were more obvious attractions for men.

Women were less likely to remain in medicine, an Irish study found while 92% of men said they would stay in general practice, only 67% of women said they would.

A separate study carried out by the IMO earlier this year revealed dissatisfaction among both men and women in medicine, one-third saying they would not chose it as a career again.

Dr Mahon said this was a major indicator that all was not well for either men or women in the health service and that it could in time lead to a critical shortage of doctors.

Both Dr Mahon and Dr Gray said action must be taken now to stop this happening, and getting rid of 24-hour on-call and introducing more flexible working hours were crucial.

The Hanly report proposals for health reform and the upcoming introduction of a shorter working week under the European Working Time Directive, must both be used to achieve these improvements for those working in medicine, the doctors said.