medicine 'feminised'

KES Parent · Post by **KES Parent** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 2:41 pm

Medicine is no longer the prestigious career it was even a generation ago. As has long been the case in Russia, for example, where it has always been a predominantly female profession, it is rapidly losing its cachet here. I would be much more impressed with a student who had thoughtfully chosen a career such as physiotherapy or speech therapy than by one who had been brainwashed by their family into becoming a doctor. A lot of boys who might once have gone into medicine no longer consider it because the profession has become part time and feminised. Surgery, which does require stamina and long years of hard work, is one of the few specialties that still appeals to them.

T.i.p.s.y · Post by **T.i.p.s.y** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 2:56 pm

I'm not sure it has become feminised but that the culture has changed and more females enter the profession. I find this a positive thing as I have never met a male doctor who has empathy. As for part-time, this must be higher up. My sister will become a junior doctor soon and she has already been made aware of the unwritten rule of working 17+ hours a day.

Physiotherapy is a worthy career and brains are certainly required but the content of a medical degree is vast, complex and exceptionally difficult and cannot be compared. My poor sister doesn't even get a summer holiday and only one week at Christmas.

KES Parent · Post by **KES Parent** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 5:04 pm

Hi Tipsy, no, part-time isn't higher up, a friend's daughter got married while still a medical student and once her pre-reg year was over she started producing babies and taking maternity leave and then working part time straight away. I gather from her mum that was always her intention as well, and they see nothing wrong in wasting such an expensive training like this, and I really have to bite my tongue not to mention it myself. I talk to a lot of sixth form boys, and like my son they mostly seem to think about medicine in the same way that their fathers' generation thought about nursing, ie not something for them. That is the price we pay for equal opportunities - far more money will have to be spent on training doctors because probably a majority will be working part time for some or most of their career. The way doctors are trained has also changed to suit female styles of learning. I'm not saying it's not hard work, and I'm not necessarily saying it's a bad thing that so many girls become doctors, but recruitment and training are both very different now from how they used to be.

Guest55 · Post by **Guest55** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 5:46 pm

they see nothing wrong in wasting such an expensive training like this

Sorry - I don't get this - how it is wasted? She is still a doctor and she is bringing up the next generation - her knowledge must be enriching their growing up.

Your post sounds a little sexist to me ...

T.i.p.s.y · Post by **T.i.p.s.y** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 5:48 pm

Well I have some shocking stories from junior doctors who have witnessed doctors in a higher position refuse to treat seriously ill patients because they have to go and do a religious activity for 20 minutes. On one occassion a patient died as a direct result of this and when the junior doctor complained she was pulled up for being un-PC !

KES Parent · Post by **KES Parent** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 6:40 pm

Guest55 wrote:
they see nothing wrong in wasting such an expensive training like this
Sorry - I don't get this - how it is wasted? She is still a doctor and she is bringing up the next generation - her knowledge must be enriching their growing up.

Your post sounds a little sexist to me ...

Well, yes, I would agree entirely that I am sexist, but I believe that public money should be spent carefully for the greatest good, not just to provide individual fulfilment for, well, individuals. There is not much point in her being a doctor if she isn't practising as such. I would have found it quite useful to have a medical degree myself when I was bringing up small children, given all the accidents and illnesses they used to get, but as an alternative I found it invaluable to have a full-time empathetic male GP who I could generally make an appointment to see within a day or so, and who made home visits as a matter of routine.

Tipsy, as usual, makes a very valid point, and has gone where I feared to tread, but she provides another reason why medicine is no longer a particularly attractive and respected career.

Guest55 · Post by **Guest55** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 7:07 pm

She is working - part time - so it is not wasted.

Sorry - I can see my GP on demand - I just turn up at the surgery - and yes some are female

There would not be enough GPs or teachers if only full-time employment was considered.

By the way I would full-time .... but quite a few of my colleagues - male and female - do not

Chelmsford mum · Post by **Chelmsford mum** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 7:18 pm

I'm afraid the idea that training is "wasted" if someone has babies is rather short sighted.This generation of students may well be working until they are 70 and the years taken off ,(if they are taken off), to raise children are usually far less than ten.

The logical outworking of your post is that women who intend to have children should not be allowed to enter certain professions, unless they can entirely fund all their training.It's hard to call this anything other than sexism.We can't opt for our husbands to bear the children.(if only)

I took off about 4 -5 years in total (full time at home) to raise my three daughters.Now I work about 80% of a timetable.Perhaps I am deluding myself but I feel that time was for the greater good , not just my own.I could have passed them onto the nearest childminder but instead I gave them all the input I could.I hope this has meant that they have more to contribute to society overall.My eldest wants to do some form of scientific research and middle daughter wants to be a teacher.(Little one wants to be a fairy

but she is only 5!)
I believe that my giving time to them increased their educational potential, moral grounding and aspirations.I can't see this as "wasted", even if my tuition fees were paid for from the public purse.

KES Parent · Post by **KES Parent** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 8:39 pm

Chelmsford mum wrote:It's hard to call this anything other than sexism.We can't opt for our husbands to bear the children.(if only)

Who's complaining if you call it sexism? Most women doctors will never work full-time, except possibly for a few years at the start of their careers. Male doctors normally work full time. They are therefore much better value to society.

I would love to know where Guest 55 lives where she can just turn up at the surgery and see her GP. My son has just had to wait 2 weeks to get an appointment to see any of the GPs at his surgery, and he was only making the appointment because his part-time female GP wrote and asked him to. I dread to think how long he would have had to wait if he had asked to see her specifically.

Guest55 · Post by **Guest55** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 8:54 pm

I live in Buckinghamshire -

I know many men that work part-time and some I know are the 'housewife' - I'm sorry I cannot understand HOW you can justify your sexism -

Parents work as a team and it is not always the woman that is at home ...