Male Dominated British Medicine Changing

Despite a record number of female medical students, medicine remains a white male dominated profession — but researchers say that might soon change.

Isobel Allen of the London-based Policy Studies Institute said 20 years ago, many women who wanted to reduce their hours to spend time with their children were not regarded as proper doctors.

But Allen — a professor of health and social policy — says the proportion of women consultants in Britain has doubled from 12 percent in 1983 to 25 percent last year. General practice has also seen similar figures multiply — from 19 percent in 1983 to 38 percent now.

However, women doctors do not even make up 40 percent of the medical workforce in Britain in either general practice or hospital medicine. Also, she adds, fewer women than men are in registered physician training posts.

But the days when pursuing a career in medicine meant losing the right to a normal life for either men or women are gone, said Allen.

It was not a golden age and will never return, she said.

Her study appears in the current issue of the British Medical Journal.