When I started medical school in 1972, in a class of 200, eight students were women.  Times have changed.  In 2023, 54.6% of students matriculating to medical schools were women.  

The effect of the change in the physician workforce has been enormous.  Study after study documents that women are superior to men in taking patient histories, the heart of accurate diagnosis.  Female physicians on average take ten percent longer than males in office visits.  They interrupt less, deal with psychosocial issues more effectively, provide superior preventive services, and explain medical conditions better.

In a study published in The Annals of Internal Medicine in 2024, researchers examined the effects of physician gender on patients hospitalized for medical conditions.  They looked at 30-day mortality rates and readmission rates, finding that statistics for female physicians were superior in both critical categories.

Dark Clouds

Women may make excellent physicians, but they are not thriving in the medical world.  Even with the higher rates of admission to medical schools for women, they constitute only 38% of the entire physician workforce.  Part of the reason is that older doctors, who are products of medical school classes when male physicians dominated, tip the scales of the participation rates.  But there are more sinister reasons for the under representation, one of which is female physician burnout.

In an already stressful profession, and one becoming evermore pressurized by corporate policies prioritizing production over quality, female doctors shoulder greater responsibilities than men outside the workplace.  They do more of the household work and are more likely to spend more time in caregiving efforts of children and infirm parents.  Across all specialties, even taking into account hours worked per week, men earned 29% more than women.

In academic medicine, for the same amount of federally funded research and peer reviewed publications, women earned tenure at a lower rate.

The Future

The physician workforce, across most specialties, is already smaller than optimal, and projections for future needs are dire.  One avenue to meet the demand for doctors is for the medical-industrial complex to find a way to keep females in the profession.