Feminization of Canadian Medicine: Voices from the Second Wave

Abstract

In 2009 a Globe and Mail pundit claimed that the current doctor shortage stems from increasing numbers of women in medicine. This opinion is widely held, despite articulate opposition from medical deans who characterized it as a new variant of the old "sexist blame game" (CMAJ 2008). In this ambivalent climate, we interviewed 10 women who entered the Canadian profession between 1945 and 1960, when strict limits on female students were established in most schools. Using semi-structured, in-person and telephone interviews, we found that they worked as much as their male colleagues. Several also raised three to five children; and negotiation of the domestic sphere usually fell to them. Most worked past age 65, and two are still working well into their eighties. Our findings will be set in the context of the existing literature on women in medicine. We will also examine the results of surveys on physicians' working hours, in which all specialties show a decline, including those that have not been feminized. We conclude that the women who entered the profession between 1945 and 1960 did not contribute to the current doctor shortage.